Source ForPressRelease.com

Indian healthcare crowdfunding platform ImpactGuru.com has raised an investment from Shorooq Investments, the Abu-Dhabi based firm. Some GCC-based angel investors also participated. Earlier this year, ImpactGuru.com had announced raising $2 million Series co-led by by Apollo Hospitals Group, Asia’s largest and most trusted healthcare group and Venture Catalysts, an Indian incubator.



Founded in 2014 by Piyush Jain and Khushboo Jain, the platform makes it easy for anyone to raise funds online for their medical expenses that are not covered by insurance.



The traditional way of doing this is seeking contributions (as a loan) from family members and return the money at some point. But for some very expensive medical procedures, raising money from family members sometimes is not enough and that’s why every now and then we keep seeing calls-for-donations on Facebook and other similar platforms, where people are collecting money for medical treatment of their loved ones.



Recently, in a tragic incident, a 28-year-old software engineer Ramya died while her husband Praveen was critically injured after the bike they were riding on, which was run over by a lorry in Hyderabad. Praveen's brother started a fundraiser of Rs. 20 lakhs and launched a campaign on ImpactGuru.com for the surgery, bills, medicines and post-operative care. The money raised now is close to 19 lakhs and is helping Praveen undergo treatment in Continental Hospital.



ImpactGuru.com is basically making all of that very easy. Anyone can contribute to the calls/campaigns for donations, which makes things convenient $50,000 from 100 people, including your family, friends and other generous donors is way easier than raising the same amount from five close family members. And you obviously don’t have to think about paying back the money as the money provided is not a loan. Since launching, ImpactGuru.com has helped over 15,000 patients to crowdfund in last 4 years and mobilized over $20 million across 15 countries.



After raising this investment, ImpactGuru.com now plans to expand into GCC, starting from UAE. The region hosts 7 million Indian expats and more than 15% of donations on ImpactGuru.com that originate from outside of India come from GCC.



The startup is looking to partner with with private hospitals, clinics, healthtech startups, and NGOs to accelerate its GCC entry and scale its operations. The governments in the region fund about 70% of all healthcare expenditure, estimated at $76 billion, per statement, which is starting to become a challenge, given lower oil prices, aging population, increasing prevalence of chronic diseases – particularly cancer and diabetes.



Piyush Jain, Co-Founder and CEO, ImpactGuru.com said “Impact Guru is thrilled to receive the backing of Shorooq Investments to scale crowdfunding in GCC and make healthcare affordable for all. The potential to use technology to crowdfund for help is limitless in the face of GCC’s accelerating smartphone, internet, and digital payments penetration. We look forward to providing the best and most cost effective patient financing solution in the market today as the first mover in the GCC region.”