The Indonesian startup cited plans for a Southeast Asian expansion
Health information portal Alodokter today announced that it has closed a US$2.5 million Series A round led by Golden Gate Ventures, with participation from 500 Startups and entrepreneur Lim Dershing.
The three investors had also participated in Alodokter’s seed round back in April 2015, with Jeffrey Payne (Founding Partner of Golden Gate Ventures) set to join the company’s board of directors.
The startup plans to use the funding to expand its business to Southeast Asia, though Founder and CEO Nathanael Faibis declined to mention further details about their destination and timeline. The startup only revealed that it will replicate its current model and localise by providing health information in local languages.
“We aim at becoming the leading health information website in every country we enter in Southeast Asia. We have built a strong expertise in providing medically reliable health information,” he wrote in an e-mail to e27.
“We believe that by adapting our process to each local context and by hiring strong teams fully dedicated to the health of their readers, we will be able to reach our goals,” he added.
Daniel Stan, former VP of Lazada Indonesia, had also joined the company to lead the international expansion.
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Apart from its news portal discussing health and well-being issues, Alodokter also has a mobile app that was launched in March. The app allows users to chat with a general practitioner, combining the use of AI and real doctor-patient interaction.
According to Alodokter, its news portal has experienced 700 per cent growth from one million to eight million unique monthly visitors since its seed round last year. It has also answered over 100,000 questions raised by patients.
Faibis explained that the key to the company’s growth rate lies in addressing Indonesian users’ need for better health information, and building “a strong team [that is] highly motivated to provide high quality information to readers.”
“Building our user base required a lot of patience. There was no shortcut. For every piece of content that we propose, we need it to be the best available in Bahasa Indonesia to attract readers,” he wrote.
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