Why did the co-founders decide to launch such an App? What are the key objectives that could be achieved through its launch?

I along with my two other co-founders wanted to start something of our own and were a part of different initiatives at our college. In the final year of 2012 during a midnight coffee break, the idea of starting something floated by and nobody ditched. We initially started working in healthcare sector with a medical tourism company. The business was lucrative and offered good margins just to bring in patients from overseas, but it thrived on a big inefficiency where doctors are not connected enough to each other. It was then that we dropped the idea, took jobs with MNCs and continued researching about the concept of medical networking in India.

Till May 2014, we met more than 1,000 doctors and the need was evident.

Key objectives of Curofy:
• Connectivity of doctors made easier.
• A discussion platform facilitating exchange of ideas, second opinion from senior and co doctors regarding their cases.
• Spam free customized news feed with the latest news update and healthcare techniques to look up to.
• Budding doctors are provided with a job portal.

Are there any checks and balances while selecting the doctors or that is not in the criteria? Are there any important guidelines that are required to be duly followed by doctors?

At Curofy we have an in-house process to verify each and every registration that we receive on the application. We have 100 percent verified and valid data on our platform.

The only major guideline that needs to be followed by the doctors is that they should avoid sharing their patients' privacy on the app.

Please explain in brief how is the networking within doctors going to benefit patients?

Curofy as a platform is providing instant access to doctors to connect to other doctors from across the country to share opinions and case studies. The app is helping doctors from around the country to be able to pool their collective wisdom online to recommend options for follow up testing and treatment, thus saving time in patient treatment which many times helps save lives of their respective patients. The main agenda of the app is to allow doctors to work effectively as teams seamlessly across borders.

Also, Curofy teamed up with its doctors and NGOs for the disaster stricken people during the Nepal Earthquake and the Chennai Floods this year, saving over 1000+ lives.

Doctors recommend cases; seek expert opinions for their cases and medical problems which help to resolve the issue.

How big is the healthcare market in India? What are the latest trends?

The mobile app industry in India is bound to touch half a billion dollars by 2016. If we look at the global scenario, mobile healthcare industry is going to touch the 60 billion mark by 2020. Hence the industry size is huge and the opportunities are immense.

With the advent of various technologies, companies have started to shift offline behaviour to online in healthcare. From booking appointments to meeting a doctor to consulting for a primary healthcare check up, start ups have started to explore.
The current behaviour is mostly offline. There is a strong need of a connected healthcare system in India today; every doctor is seeing every type of patient even when it is a case of a super specialist. There is a dire need of super specialty in tier-2 cities, hence doctors should be connected with each and every type of super specialists, specialist, only then will a better coordinated patient care be achieved.

How did you manage the funding? What is the kind of revenue are you expecting?

Curofy has recently raised Pre Series A funding from Roundglass Partners. Earlier in TIECON 2014, Curofy, in a dramatic reality-based event on CNBC, won angel funding to the tune of INR 1 crore.

It's been just 9 months since the app launched, and the company has been approached by numerous pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, medical equipment manufacturers and other health care businesses for partnerships. This clearly shows how valuable such a network can be for these players who spend billions of dollars to reach out to doctors. So, we're mostly trying to connect with Pharma and Med Tech companies with doctors but through indirect marketing.

Otherwise the current focus is on building a high quality engaging network of doctors. It is still early to comment on how Curofy would monetize it, but it will certainly be in a way that is beneficial and non-intrusive to the users.