DigiQure E-clinic witnessed a shark fight between the two usually calm sharks i.e., Namita and Peyush.
The founders of DigiQure struck the right cords with the sharks because of the impact they are trying to bring to the rural healthcare sector. They aim to save the lives of 24 lakh people who lose their lives every year because of preventable health care conditions.
DigiQure E-clinic
It is based on the concept of providing telemedicine facilities to small villages so that the patient can consult online with specialist doctors in big cities.
Vision: Reach all the small villages in India that have 100 crores population and provide them with affordable and reliable healthcare, so no one dies of preventable health conditions.
For the rural segment, they provide a subscription called the Saksham card. The patient has to pay just one rupee per day, they need to visit their clinic with this card and get a free consultation.
They also provide facilities like digital prescriptions, lab tests, and medicines.
They also have their DigiQure app that allows users to connect with top specialist doctors 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in just one tap. You just need to book appointments through the app and consult online with doctors anytime, anywhere.
Users can get treatments for any concerns right from cold or flu, tooth pain, chronic pain, diabetes, skin problems, and complex health conditions like gynecology issues, heart problems, eye infections, and more.
They started with physical clinics in Madhya Pradesh, and expanding to Mizoram is in their pipeline.
DigiQure Founders
Akanksh Tandon, Ankur, and Saket are the founders of DigiQure. Akansh Tandon was born in a amall village in Madhya Pradesh. He has closely experienced the problems faced by villagers due to the lack of proper health facilities.
When he was a child, he would play with the daughter of his household Geeta. Once when he had gone for holidays to his maternal grandparent’s house, When he returned back he found out that Geeta had lost her life because of Dirrahoea and vomiting, the main reason was that her mother did not have enough money for the treatment.
The memory of this haunts her life to date. He strongly felt doing something about it and started this business with his other two batch mates Saumen and Saket.
Equity split:
- Akanksh- 30%
- Ankur- 55%
- Saket- 15%
Akanksh is deeply attached to this impact that, he has invested all his time and money in this business and their home is being run by his wife’s salary.
DigiQure Shark Tank India
The story, genuineness, and impact of the Akanksh touched the heart of the sharks.
Currently, they are facing the challenge of awareness and building trust. Village people do not trust easily, and that is why they have to open physical stores. Otherwise, they would rather prefer to have a healthcare worker with a bag roaming in the village, akin to a mobile E-clinic.
To build trust they are building a local community and organizing camps with Sarpanch.
Unit Economics:
- Marketing- ₹2 Lakhs
- Saksham Card- ₹90 K
- Medicines- ₹60 K
- Pathology tests- ₹40 K
They also have another IT company, with the same founders as DigiQure.
DigiQure had asked for ₹40 lakhs for 4% equity at ₹10 crore valuation.
Aman was not interested in investing because it is an operationally heavy business.
Namita and Vineeta gave an offer of ₹40 lakhs for 20% at ₹2 crores valuation. Under the condition that the IT company should be merged with DigiQure.
Peyush gave the offer of ₹1 crore for 25% equity, under the same condition as Namita and Vineeta.
To this Namita told the founders not to give so much equity to Peyush, the reason being that in the future they will have to raise more rounds in order to grow, at that time too they will have to offload their equity.
Peyush objected to it saying that Namita’s demand of 20% equity is fine but not his. This made Nameta revise her offer to ₹40 lakhs for 15% equity.
Anupam believed that the time for the success of telemedicine is ripe and gave the dream deal i.e., agreeing to the original ask by the founders. He, however, had 3 conditions:
- Both IT and DigiQure are to be merged
- The brand name should be changed to Geeta because it is made in her memory
- They will not open any further physical clinics until the product becomes market fit. When it happens, he himself will help them open the physical clinics.
The founder gave the counter offer to Namita of ₹40 lakhs at 10% equity which she accepted and the deal was sealed.
Where To Find Them
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Concluding Remarks
We do hope that DigiQure is successful in fulfilling its vision to provide healthcare facilities to villages all over India.
I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the sharks were not sure of how successful this business can be, but they were betting on the entrepreneurship skills of Akanksh.
I would like to leave you with some of the Entrepreneur lessons that we all can learn from Akanksh Tandon.
- Understand the Pain Point Of Target Customers
Being born and brought up in a small village in MP, he can deeply understand the problems faced by his target customers.
- Transparency and Genuineness
The sharks loved the transparency with which the founder gave his pitch, over here he was not trying to impress anyone. He was here to explain the cause and ask for help.
- Work Towards Impact
The lines between social cause and business are blurring day by day. They chose a business that can impact the lives of crores of rural populations and generate profits along the way. This is wisdom at its best.
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