VCs still believe in service providers

agencyfaqs! News Bureau

BANGALORE, October 24

In an indication of the feeling among venture capitalists that niche markets have a good chance of turning profitable, N S Raghavan, co-founder of Infosys Technologies Ltd, and founder of Nadathur Holding & Investments Pvt. Ltd. (NHIPL), has picked up a 10 per cent stake in the Bangalore-based Medybiz.com, the first web-enabled health services company in India.

Company officials were jubilant. "Raghavan's participation is a competent validation of our fundamental ‘click & brick' business model, and also endorses the practical utility of our services. The presence of an industry stalwart like Raghavan as our investor gives us access to knowledge resources that can further enable us to fine-tune our services," says A Suryanarayanan, chief executive officer, Medybiz.com. Encouraged by the response to its services in the three southern states the company plans to expand its services to the rest of the country. Medybiz.com was launched in Chennai on June 21, 2000 and expanded quickly to Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Kaashyap Radiant Systems Limited (KRSL), the principal technology providers and incubators of the company, now have a 15 per cent stake in the company. KRSL continues to assist Medybiz.com as a technical partner.

Raghavan confirmed the belief of the industry that service-based net companies were viable. "Our investment in Medybiz.com has primarily been defined by the inherent strengths of the company like the concept, the management and the synergistic integration of old and new economy concepts," he said.

Medybiz.com's unique services include Medyshop, an online chemist that delivers medicines to the consumers at home within 24 hours without any delivery charges. It also includes Medylab which offers diagnostic facilities at home such as routine blood tests etc. All these services can be availed either by logging onto www.medybiz.com or calling the 24-hour Medybiz call center at 96284 96222. Another unique feature is that once a patient is registered with Medybiz, he or she can avail of its standardized services wherever they are available in India, with the patient's medical records and medicine preferences maintained by the Medybiz database.

Medybiz.com is targeting a turnover of Rs 15 crore in the first year of its operations. The company plans to use the money that it has acquired to launch various innovative initiatives such as a B2B module, a HealthCard and a unique NRI-focused section. Also on the cards is a major expansion plan across the country. The company plans to roll out its services in nine more cities in the country by the end of the current fiscal.

Medybiz.com was conceived as a one-stop shop for ‘E' and ‘T' commerce. The idea was to be a repository of information on all matters relating to healthcare - to facilitate commerce of medicines, equipment, hospital consumables and services and to meet the needs of patients, doctors, hospitals, exporters, institutions and pharmaceutical companies.

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