The problem
Seeing a doctor in the region still ran on phone calls, walk-ins, and fragmented schedules: patients faced long waits and opaque availability, clinics bled revenue to no-shows, and virtual care, home visits, and prescriptions lived in disconnected silos.
How it works
Okadoc’s platform lets patients search, compare, and book virtual and in-person appointments in 30 seconds or less. Hospitals and clinic groups — including Medcare, Aster Hospitals, and Emirates Healthcare Group, plus a strategic integration with Dubai Healthcare City — deploy it white-labelled to manage schedules and reduce no-shows. The company then layered on home healthcare (physio, lab tests, infusions) and a cloud pharmacy after acquiring pharmacies in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, aiming for a hybrid model where a growing share of care is delivered outside the clinic.
Pain points
Phone-booking friction and uncertain wait times; clinics losing slots to no-shows; patients with no single path from appointment to teleconsultation to home care; and providers lacking digital storefronts for their availability.
Business model
A B2B2C patient-engagement platform earning through provider partnerships and white-labelled deployments across the Gulf, with newer revenue from home-healthcare services and owned cloud-pharmacy operations.
Challenges
The $10M round was announced as a first close, so completing the raise is still ahead of it; stitching acquired pharmacies into one cross-border operation is operationally demanding; and regional rivals compete for the same hospital networks. Okadoc’s own data shows decentralised formats were still small in 2022 (3.3% video, 0.6% home care), so the hybrid-care bet has yet to prove scale.
Funding
- Raised: $10M pre-Series B first close (Nov 2022), led by IGan Partners and co-led by Bunat Ventures, with Basim Ibrahim Hayel Saeed Group, Club 49, Alesayi Group, Bupa Arabia, ADQ, and Now Invest.
- Earlier: $10M Series A (Feb 2020) with ADIO and Ithmar Capital Partners — then the largest healthtech Series A in MENA — following a $2.3M seed round from 2018; total raised above $12M at that point (MENAbytes, Feb 2020).
Latest — November 2022
On 8 November 2022 Okadoc announced the $10M first close of its pre-Series B to fund expansion into home healthcare and cloud pharmacy across Saudi Arabia and the UAE, reporting video consultations at 3.3% of bookings and arguing 30% of healthcare will be delivered decentrally by 2033.