Conceived ass virtual care platform which connects customers to health service providers, Pakistani healthtech startup, medIQ Smart Healthcare, has raised a $1.8 million pre-seed round led by US-based Amaana Capital, and Middle East & Pakistan-focused Cordoba Ventures, with participation from US-based early-stage investor Seraph Group, House of Habib and TAJDEED, as well as a group of physicians from the Pakistani Physicians of North American Descent Association, and angel investors from Silicon Valley.

Founded in 2020 by Dr. Saira Siddique, medIQ helps companies or insurers to deliver virtual care, while also serving individual users across the country. Offering a customisable plug-and-play technology stack and a network of online pharmacy and laboratory services backed by general physicians, specialists from 32 specialties, nursing staff and homecare teams, the startup converts medical records to a single profile in a secure electronic record system.

“In just 18 months, medIQ has served more than 300,000 patients,” said Siddique. “The hospitals have an average waiting time of 90 minutes for a consultation and only 2.5 minutes are spent on the actual consultation. Close to 90% of the patients can be easily treated at the point of need without a visit to hospital. We’ve built a complete digital platform that provides these end-to-end services. There’s no need for any patient to go to the hospital until and unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

While fintech and supply chain logistics are the stars of the Pakistani ecosystem, the pandemic saw the sector stir with 12 deals completed in the last two years. Funding hit the $5 million mark in 2020 and while there were two less deals in 2021, Pakistan-based healthtech startups observed 21% YoY growth. Among the highlight deals were investments in HealthWire, Ailaaj, Marham, Dawaai and Sehat Kahani.

As the sector continues to grow and the sector’s solutions diversify, medIQ will channel its funding into its infrastructure, most interestingly in AI and Machine Learning, while also exploring regional expansion.