House Calls by Smartphone? LatAm Unicorn Teams With Sanofi

(Bloomberg) -- Rappi, a Latin America tech company that reached unicorn valuation by delivering meals and groceries, has a new idea: doctor house calls and prescription medications ordered through its mobile phone app.

The Colombia-based delivery service is partnering with French bio-pharmaceutical giant Sanofi to offer health care services in Latin America. The partnership will initially offer over-the-counter consumer health care products, Sanofi said in a statement, without disclosing the financial terms of the arrangement.

Rappi believes that its data on clients’ purchase history could be used by companies like Sanofi to fine-tune their sales and marketing strategies, according to commercial director Juan Sebastian Ruales.

“It’s not what people say they do, it’s what they put in the basket,” he said. “If you say you are a fit person but then get a lot of hamburgers from Rappi, we know you’re not that fit.”

Initially, Sanofi will use the Rappi’s app to market and promote its brands and products, pending regulatory approvals.

Ruales sees the partnership expanding to offer subscriptions for prescription medications, real-time interactions with medical providers, and at-home visits by doctors. It’s part of the $1.2 billion tech startup’s mission to offer a massive range of products -- from diapers to electronic scooter rentals -- to customers in the seven countries where it operates.

“We want to become the go-to option for digital health care in Latin America,” he said. “We deliver hamburgers, we deliver nail polish, now we’ll be able to deliver doctors.”

The partnership is expected to launch in April, he said.

Tech startups have for years offered similar services in other countries as part of a mobile health apps industry that was worth around $8 billion last year, according to a study by Zion Market Research. However, Rappi and Sanofi said they see opportunity in Latin America, which has historically produced fewer tech startups than other regions.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ezra Fieser in Bogota at efieser@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nikolaj Gammeltoft at ngammeltoft@bloomberg.net, Matthew Bristow, Robert Jameson

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