While staying in Seattle, USA, Kiran Kalakuntla got frustrated that in this digital age he still had to pester his parents for their health over a phone call. Things took a sharp turn in his life when his father underwent surgery. His frustration over the long-distance and inability to get answers from the healthcare system pushed him to start ekincare. 

In 2014, Kiran started ekincare with Srikanth Samudrala. It started as a platform to help NRI citizens take care of their relatives back home. They named the venture to reflect the same idea. ‘e’ for electronic and ‘kin’ meaning family. Soon the venture morphed into an AI-driven platform that stored health records and gave personalised services like consultations, diagnosis, medicines delivery and more. 

In the initial days, ekincare didn’t have many customers. It recorded its first 10 customers in 2017 and its first 100 customers two years later. But recently, ekincare’s clientele includes many of Fortune 500 list’s companies like Unilever, Barclays, Disney, BNY Mellon, eBay, FedEx and 130 other giants of the industry. 

They have raised $5 million-plus in total four rounds of funding. In their seed funding round they raised $161 thousand from BitKemy Ventures and Adroitent in 2015. In their series A round they raised $3.06 million. Other investors are Maheshwari Investments, Ventureeast, Touchstone equities, Anshoo Gaur, Rama Krishna Reddy and Sandeep Seerapu. They are present in more than 50 Indian cities and have partners in 2000 plus locations. 

The Covid induced pandemic only accelerated ekincare’s fortunes. In May 2020, they saw a 221% increase in online consultations. Out of the total increased consultation, 76% were for non-Covid matters. In the revenue sector, they are growing by 50% quarter on quarter. To fight against Covid, they had offered free telemedicine offer to over 600 companies. 

Indian well-being industry is reported to touch Rs 500 billion. The sector will keep rising by 30% every year. Will ekincare be able to compete against Practo and HealthifyMe as a personalised healthcare provider?