Clinikally
India has seen an increased demand for proper scientifically backed dermatological care for quite a while now. However, there was no comprehensive platform to meet skin and hair care needs until recently. The existing solutions were mostly D-to-C and largely focused on providing a quick answer to a wide range of problems, often ignoring the long-term aspects of their customers' health.
A long-term and reliable solution for all dermatological needs
As a result, Clinikally became a one-stop platform delivering a range of effective products, consultations with professionals and long-term care tailored to the individual's needs and measured results. Moreover, it became a pivotal tool in a post-COVID era, when teleconsultation has become one of the most important and reliable forms of healthcare in a country with very uneven specialised care density. Arjun Soin, Founder, Clinikally, was fortunate to witness this untapped potential for skin and hair care burgeoning through a chain of dermatology clinics run by his mother who is a practising dermatologist with 20-plus years of experience,, and is now Clinikally's Chief Medical Officer.
Clinikally's robust business models comprise a B2C marketplace that operates as an e pharmacy, as well as a robust patent-protected private label distributed through B2C as well as B2B channels, and last but not least - a B2C teleconsultation platform.
Seamlessly blending the new with the traditional using science and technology
What distinguishes Clinikally from the other platforms are doctor-backed formulations, and product treatment plans, along with premium-grade ingredients powered by real-world clinical evidence from thousands of healthcare centres and clinics. Clinikally collaborates with a specialised private laboratory that caters to their exclusive manufacturing needs.
Clinikally's digital health platform's reach extends far beyond most traditional practices/ D2C brands given the wide-ranging scope of the platform. In just two years since its launch, through our full-stack e-pharmacy and telehealth platform, they have offered more than 20,000 tele-consults and delivered products and treatment plans to over 12,000 pincodes (60% of the country). They are rapidly adding offline clinic partnerships to the fold as well.
Arjun Soin, Founder of Clinikally, commented, "At Clinikally, scientific thinking is the bedrock of both our foundational principles and our daily operations. While our product development process is spearheaded by none other than doctors who have decades of clinical practice, our telehealth platform (www.clinikally.com/consult) results in ultra-personalised treatment regimens that take into account a multitude of germane factors, right from the severity of issue (especially relevant for chronic conditions like eczema and hair loss across stages), to pre-existing conditions, lifestyle, climate, and existing product as well as medical history," adding, "Our clinical team updates telehealth specs and recommendations constantly based on novel scientific information, new product technologies and consultation learnings."
Frugal fiscality has helped scale up Clinikally's growth
The team kickstarted their journey in 2022, without raising external capital. It began raising funds only around six months after its inception. Clinikally has raised $3m from leading global investors and angels - YCombinator, Tribe Capital, Goodwater Capital, Rebel Fund, Sequoia Scout US, Kunal Shah (CRED), Arash Ferdowsi (Dropbox), Sumant Sinha (ReNew Power), Anu Acharya (MapMyGenome) and Qasar Younis (Applied Intuition) to name a few. As of now, there are no substantial plans to raise another round.
Clinikally's rapid growth journey has been cemented by a lean and frugal mindset, which has persisted even today, two years later. Despite it being a formidable challenge, the team led by founder Arjun Soin overcame this by building with real intentionality of purpose - using strong word of mouth to onboard initial users and partnering up with a wide network of doctor partners to enhance discoverability.
The fact that Clinikally's first fully functioning version of the platform was built by Mr. Soin with some generous friends helping out, is a testament to this. Beyond this, bringing on board vendor partners as well as telehealth physicians was daunting given the classic cold start problem. However, it was only a matter of time before demand for consultations picked up and Clinikally was able to empanel over 25 doctors since to provide online consults.
Clinikally leverages technology to tailor solutions for individual customers
Physicians on Clinikally's platform are able to use a proprietary prescription generator to build treatment plans that leverage a curated set of the most effective products (across Rx-grade and OTC ranges) from their marketplace. Beyond this, Clinikally uses AI-powered recommendations to make an otherwise standard e-pharmacy journey far more informed. By analysing a user's previous purchases, prescription history, and demographic information, Clinikally's rule-based AI system generates product recommendations tailored to each individual's unique needs. This personalised approach ensures that patients receive the most suitable treatment options that actually work.
An exciting development on the company's technology roadmap has been launching an LLM powered chatbot for their Whatsapp support which is currently in pilot, for which they have been experimenting with a slate of models including Llama, GPT-4 and Claude Haiku.
Furthermore, the team is also experimenting with a GPT4-enabled plugin to empower physicians to generate personalised treatment plans for patients within minutes. This concept will enable physicians to access a wide range of available product options as well as draw on diverse prescription templates and preestablished treatment plans, thereby simplifying the treatment process and enhancing patient outcomes.
One of Clinikally's notable technology endeavours includes the development of a comprehensive database comprising skin and hair profiles extracted from telemedicine prescriptions. This invaluable resource serves as the foundation for building an AI model that delivers automated treatment recommendations.
Ushering in a new era of informed e-commerce for consumer health and wellness
Along with an organically grown and thriving community of 95,000 on Instagram, Clinikally records over 7.5 Lakh daily search impressions organically. Owing to the fact that they disseminate hugely scientific healthcare content widely across various platforms through the day - Clinikally's in house blog platform happens to be Google News approved. The Clinikally teams has also observed that having a teleconsult and e-commerce platform running parallel ingrains a huge amount of trust in users. It is worth noting that doctors working with the platform to deliver teleconsults undergo rigorous training on the end-to-end process of delivering the highest patient satisfaction.
The e-commerce experience is further enhanced by lightning-fast shipping speeds, with a substantial portion of pincodes across Delhi NCR, Bangalore and Mumbai being eligible for 24-hour doorstep delivery of their products and medicines.
Revenue model
A bulk of Clinikally's revenue comes from their robust B2C marketplace that operates as an e-pharmacy, followed by the online consultation service and private label revenue streams. Notably, revenue from consultation platforms beyond physician fees manifests in the form of product revenue from the marketplace, which is usually the highest ticket and most recurrent form of stable revenue at this point.
Future plans
Clinikally will be soon launching their Android and iPhone apps given the growing user demand for them, and will look to delve deeper into the nutrition/nutraceuticals/weight loss space. There are also plans to introduce the Clinikally Elite Club, an omnichannel membership programme offering exclusive perks in collaboration with reputed dermatology clinic chains.
