Russian medical insurance startup attracts $3mn for international expansion

Moscow-based startup BestDoctor, which offers high-tech insurance products for individuals and businesses, attracted $3mn in a Series A round of funding in May, reports East-West Digital News (EWDN).

The round was lead by three international venture firms with Russian roots: Target Global, Ascent and AddVenture. (The two latter already invested in BestDoctor in previous rounds.) A group of business angels also participated in the deal, the media reported.

The details of the deal and the current value of BestDoctor were not disclosed. In October 2017, BestDoctor attracted $500,000 from AddVenture and a group of private investors in seed funding. In 2017, BestDoctor reported RUB10mn (roughly $150,000) in revenues.

BestDoctor offers businesses an opportunity to provide medical services to their employees. Employers only pay for the medical services actually rendered to employees, which, as the startup claims, helps businesses save on insurance costs.

BestDoctor claims to be using a smart algorithm to forecast the medical budgets of its clients with an accuracy of 97%. It deducts the money for services rendered on a monthly basis and provides a report on how much money was spent on medicine. The remaining funds are either returned to a particular client’s banking account or are used to cover the next period of service subscription.

The company plans to use the fresh funding to develop its digital platform further and finance its international expansion. BestDoctor plans to expand its operations abroad in 2020; however, it does not specify, which countries will be targeted.

BestDoctor claims it now has RUB200mn (around $3mn) worth of active contracts signed with more than 10,000 clients. These can use medical services offered by 2,000 clinics.