The non-face-to-face medical services or remote medicine are booming in South Korea since the Ministry of Health and Welfare temporarily authorized telemedicine in Korea in February 2020. Dr. Now, a telemedicine platform, has recorded 5.6 million cumulative app users and 3 million cumulative app downloads since the service was launched in December 2020. The Medtech startup has attracted 40 billion won ($31 million) in Series B round investment.
With the investment, the enterprise value of Dr. Now is estimated to be more than 200 billion won ($150 million), and the accumulated investment so far has reached a total of 52 billion won ($41 million). In this round, N Partners, Goodwater Capital, Smart Study Ventures, and Spring Ventures participated, along with a number of existing investors such as Softbank Ventures, Saehan Startup Investment, Hashed, and Crit Ventures, Primer Saje, and Mirae Asset Capital.
Dr. Now to focus on expansion & recruitment
Junpyo Lee, CEO of SoftBank Ventures, said, “Dr. Now experienced a mega-traffic of 1.2 million users per day during the Omicron surge. Now is thinking about the domestic digital medical industry even in difficult circumstances, and is making an impact by making ceaseless efforts to create a win-win innovation across the industry based on non-face-to-face treatment.”
Through this investment, Dr. Now plans to focus its efforts on diversifying services that cover the whole of healthcare, from prevention of various diseases to health management, based on the core medical sector of non-face-to-face treatment and drug prescription. In addition, it plans to lower the threshold further and increase access to medical care while investing in expanding the digital base.
Dr. Now is also spurring the recruitment of elite talent for service expansion. In particular, large-scale human resources such as front-end engineers, back-end engineers, product owners, and product designers are being recruited.
Dr. Now CEO Jang Ji-ho said, “We are only doing our best as a team for the convenience and satisfaction of users, and we were able to complete the Series B round thanks to the investment company who sympathized with our efforts and directions. We plan to create a structure that allows us to grow faster by experiencing faster execution and trial and error.”
In cooperation with 1,500 affiliated medical institutions, including local hospitals and pharmacies, Dr. Now provides medical services such as telemedicine and prescription drug delivery for various medical subjects such as internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, and dermatology.
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