'Arogya' of health care, big success in five years

Seeking medical care when sick in the country is a challenging issue for many. One has to wait for a long time to get the serial to consult the doctor. Again, patients and relatives have to go to different places for health examination (test) on the doctor's advice. It does not end here. You have to run to the pharmacy for medicine.

A startup named 'Arogya' is providing a single solution to such problems of healthcare. It is basically a digital platform, where all necessary medicines are available. If you place a purchase order from anywhere in the country, the medicine will reach your address as soon as possible. Apart from this, patients can also take doctor's advice and health check-up services at home using this app.

Arogya's journey began with little capital. In the beginning the staff was 8-9 people. In a span of five years, the startup's investment has exceeded 6 million USD, a large part of which is foreign investment. Also, the number of employees has increased to more than 500. Aarogya now has more than 2.2 million registered customers.

About the month of December 2020. Like the rest of the world, there was an outbreak of corona virus in Bangladesh. It was at this time that four young Bangladeshi entrepreneurs started their journey of healing. In the beginning it worked as a digital pharmacy that only dispensed medicines. Medicines were later joined by sales of various medical, healthcare devices, personal care products, nutritional supplements and pet food and health-related products. Health examination (pathology) services have also been added to it.

The four founders of Aarogya are the company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rozina Mazumder, Chief Strategy Officer Ewar Mehbub, Chief Operating Officer (COO) Fahad Hossain and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Shamim Hasan. A report was also published in the global magazine Forbes about their initiative in August last year.

Recently, I spoke with Ewar Mehbub, the co-founder of the startup, at Arogya's office in Mirpur-10 area of ​​the capital. Story after story he tells about the healing journey, investments, challenges and future goals. Ewar Mehbub said, 'We four started healing together. During this time both Rosina and I were out of the country for a long time. I grew up and studied there. Then I worked in investment banking, research and technology institutes for a long time. Later we also ran a cake magazine business. At that time, we held events in different countries of the world focusing on the cake industry and increased our business. He had considerable experience in business, management and investment banking. All in all we were successful. But during covid new ideas are born in our mind.

At that time, a friend in Dubai said that the startup ecosystem in Bangladesh is still very new. We can do something there. Initially, we wanted to provide investment and consulting services to a Bangladeshi startup, but not be directly involved.

Introduction to Health

Iwar Mahmud said that before starting, he started looking for potential startups in the health sector of this country. At that time, he met two young merchant navy officers from Chittagong through a friend. They were looking for investors for an app called Aarogya. With the Aarogya app, they used to buy medicines from the pharmacy and deliver them to the customer. However, their activities were limited to a small scale in Chittagong.

Ewar said, "I realized at first sight that there is potential in this. Big things are possible with the right strategy and funding. Told my angel investor friends in Dubai. They agreed, but provided that they would invest if the four of us lead together. The decision to leave a stable and comfortable life abroad and return to Bangladesh was not an easy one. I took about a month to decide. I finally agreed. This is how the official journey of healing began from December 2020.

After returning to Dhaka from London, Ewar began to reorganize health care. The office was moved from Chittagong to Dhaka. Opening a bank account, renting an office, communicating with drug companies, creating a distribution network—they took care of everything one by one. Then Ewar and Rozina started fundraising. In the second round they collected about 220 thousand dollars. The funds came mainly from their friends, relatives and some angel investors. After receiving the investment, they focused on growing customers and business.

Ewar Mehbub said, 'From the beginning our aim was to deliver the right medicine to the customer at a competitive price. For this we do not buy any medicine from Mitford or secondary market. Buy directly from drug companies. In all, we have contracts with more than 250 pharmaceutical companies.

What products and services are available

Customers can buy any medicine from Aarogya app or website. Apart from this, various beauty items (cosmetics and makeup items), medical devices (such as blood test kits, thermometers, blood pressure machines, etc.); Home care and personal care products (eg hand sanitizers, masks, skin care); Baby and mom care products (eg diapers, baby lotions); Food and nutrition supplements and pet food are also available at Arogy. Arogya has also introduced health examination services from 2024. For this, the startup has agreements with more than six hospitals and labs including Ibn Sina, Popular. Currently, samples are collected from anywhere within Dhaka. Most test reports are available online within 24 hours.

The founders of the company said that the startup will launch the doctor's consultation service from February next year. In this way, patients can consult a specialist doctor sitting at home from anywhere in the country. Aarogya said that in 2023 they had 2 lakh registered customers. Currently it has increased to over 2.2 million.

Ewar Mehbub said that there are many jobs in the health sector in the country. We want to build a complete healthcare ecosystem in the next 2-3 years. Patients from any part of the country should get the full service of seeing a doctor, getting tests and buying medicines at home.