Tencent-backed Practo sees losses triple to Rs 1.9 billion in FY17

Tencent-backed doctor and clinic search engine Practo saw its losses triple to Rs 1.91 billion in the financial year 2016-17 as expenses surged largely driven by a huge rise in employee compensation.

According to documents filed with the Registrar of Companies that was sourced through Tofler, the company reported a revenue of Rs 2.1 billion in the same period, a growth of 28 per cent over the Rs 1.6 billion revenue Practo had reported in the financial year 2015-16.

While Practo's growth in losses has kept pace, revenue growth in the year that ended March 2017 has stalled significantly. The company had posted a fivefold jump in revenues during the previous reporting period from Rs 297 million to Rs 1.6 billion.

Practo's losses had also increased fivefold during the FY16 reporting period.

The company reported that expenses had risen to Rs 4 billion from Rs 2.2 billion, largely on account of an increase in employee compensation which increased from Rs 1.3 billion to Rs 2.8 billion during the latest reporting period. Practo reported other expenses of Rs 1 billion.

The increase in employee compensation could be seen as the company's drive to expand its service across more cities in India as well as expand globally, a move it made during FY17. Today Practo offers its services in Brazil, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore apart from its home country of India.

"Practo helps manage over 50M (50 million) appointments a year and connects patients to over 100,000 healthcare providers," the filing with the RoC read. The company did not reveal how many people consumers are on its platform.

Practo is the most well-funded startup in the medical technology space in India and competes with the likes of Portea and NetMeds. The company had raised $55 million in January last year from its Chinese Internet giant Tencent, bringing the total amount of money it has raised to $179 million.

It also counts CapitalG, Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners and Yuri Milner, the billionaire founder of Russian investment giant DST Global, as its investors. The company has made five acquisitions so far, with the latest being Enlightiks in December 2016 for an undisclosed amount.