Ailaaj raises $1.6M in seed funding to scale as Pakistan’s first full-stack digital healthcare platform.

Ailaaj provides an end-to-end personalized patient care service on a single platform

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Lahore, Pakistan, Sept ***, 2021.  Ailaaj, Pakistan’s first full-stack digital healthcare platform, offering personalized end-to-end patient care services has raised $1.6M in its seed round.  The funding was led by JS Group (Pakistan’s leading financial services conglomerate); other investors that took part in the round included Fazal Din Group, Leonine Tech Ventures & private equity investors from East Asia.  

Recognizing Pakistan’s current healthcare ecosystem as fragmented over many different service providers that often leave gaps in patient care.  As a full-stack healthcare company, Ailaaj is bridging those very gaps with its vertically integrated primary care platform powering a personalized, end-to-end healthcare experience from diagnosis by PMDC qualified doctors, to delivery of medication, corporate health & wellness, to ongoing care into one flow.

Built by professionals who have dedicated years to health care delivery and the practice of medicine.  Ailaaj came into being by acquiring a telehealth startup (AugmentCare) and an online pharmacy (sehat.com.pk).  AugmentCare & Sehat.com.pk. were two startups incubated by The Fazal Din Group; a pioneer in Pakistan’s healthcare sector for over 70 years. The group, now in its 4th generation, is carrying on the purpose driven tradition to support and modernize the country’s healthcare services by evolving the digital healthcare sector that currently operates in silos by building Ailaaj as a full stack digital healthcare platform in Pakistan.  Patients will no longer have to engage with multiple service providers to address their needs.  Through one platform, Ailaaj’s users would experience a highly personalized patient experience modeled on international more developed healthcare systems.

Ailaaj Founder Hyder Mumtaz highlighted “I moved back to Pakistan with the realization that the current system in the country creates an imbalanced relationship between patients and healthcare providers.  There is a lot of confusion around how people can find the best care that they need.  With Ailaaj, everything we build is centered around giving back control to our customers through highly personalized care services.  An end-to-end solution that addresses all patient needs on one platform while connecting them to healthcare experts and the products they need for better care.”

Covid 19 may have fast-tracked development of the digital health sector of Pakistan with a number of entrants making their way into the sector.  However, patients are not able to get an end-to-end patient experience.  Keeping the patient needs as a core value, Ailaaj through its full-stack technology keeps patient experience front and center.  Instead of the all too familiar trouble of chasing doctors and figuring out treatment options for themselves.  Ailaaj sets out to empower patients through a highly personalized healthcare concierge service that will help them navigate treatment options for their optimal care ranging from consultations, specialist referrals, lab testing, prescriptions, all while maintaining a fully secured digital medical record database. The aim is to redefine the healthcare experience that has been riddled with long wait times and confusion around finding the best care plans  by providing a patient centric platform. Patient ease and facilitation is central to Ailaaj’s philosophy. To achieve this, the Ailaaj experience will ensure that patients do not have to worry about when, how and where. Ailaaj will do all of that for them 24/7.   

Ailaaj’s personalized patient care smartly makes the connection between experts and the products they recommend.  Today, addressing medicine, Ailaaj is tapping into Pakistan’s $4B pharmaceutical sector, ranked among the top three fastest growing markets in the world; a natural progression will be to leverage key opinion leaders through social commerce to expand into the baby & beauty sectors.  Pharmaceuticals, beauty & baby products along with doctor consultations and lab testing is approximately a $20B dollar market.

With a population 221 million, Pakistan currently has 1 doctor to every 1300 Pakistanis, ranking 115 globally while a meager 1.2% of the GDP is spent on healthcare by the government.  This essential need is one of the primary reasons JS VC invested in Ailaaj.

“Investing in technology that fills an institutional void, where the customer maintains a long-term positive economic relationship with the product, platform or service are at the core of our belief.  Following the acquisition and merger, as witnessed globally in comparative markets, we believe that Ailaaj shall be best placed to fulfill the void across the digital health value chain by using efficient technology.  In Ailaaj, we partner with a band of the Fazal Din brothers looking to disrupt their legacy business, geared with cross generational learnings and foreign education, forming a highly formidable team. Being PC-2 positive on e-commerce coupled with strong unit economics on B2B tele-medicine, Ailaaj is well positioned for accelerated growth in a post-Covid Pakistan, where the doctor to patient ratio and government spend on healthcare remain very low.” - Shared by Salaal Hasan, Associate Director, Venture Capital (JS Group)

About Ailaaj
Ailaaj is Pakistan’s first full-stack digital healthcare platform integrating end-to-end health care services into one patient journey flow.  Ailaaj’s health care concierge approach empowers patients by presenting them with a personalized & fully guided treatment solution.  Ailaaj offers a fully secure and patient first service to address all treatment needs of its users on one platform.