It was back in 2016 that two Stanford graduates joined hands to form what is today one of India’s biggest online health services companies, myUpchar.com. This health information platform that allows you to browse in five Indian languages, delivers medicines to every corner of India and provides tele-consultations with specialists from all fields of medicines.
Its lab testing facilities are available in 30 cities. At present, myUpchar.com has a reach of 15 crore readers and viewers every month through its mobile app, website and social media channels. Rajat Garg, CEO and co-founder, myupchar.com talks about his journey and future plans.
How did you get the idea of myUpchar?
In a prior startup, I noticed that when I converted that site to Hindi, over 50 per cent of Ayurveda products started selling. I connected with my friend Manuj Garg to discuss this trend and realised there is absolutely no reliable health content in Indian languages. This observation led us to launch myUpchar.
What was your initial investment?
Together, we put in a few lakhs to support a small team and get this started. We were also lucky to get funding from Angel investors Rajan Anandan, Alok Mittal, Mohit Satyanand and others.
How are you different from the other players?
We cater to rural areas and Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. When myUpchar.com started, none of the existing players were serving the Tier 2 and 3 cities. Most of the online healthcare industry focussed on urban population and there was no quality healthcare content for rural areas or consultation services for these cities. This was a great push for us that differentiated myUpchar from others. We have tied up with all possible courier companies to deliver medicines to almost every pin code in the country.
Have you extended consultations only for allopathic medicines?
We have allopathic, ayurvedic, homeopathic and general consultations available at our platform. Over 50,000 well-qualified and competent doctors provide consultation on our platform.
How much time does it take to deliver the medicines?
It takes approx. 48-72 hours after the order confirmation. In rural areas, it may take five to six days for delivery.