The Hola Health Story

One night, at 9:30 PM, I found myself living every parent's nightmare. My son was burning with a fever, and I desperately needed medication. With all pharmacies closed, my only hope was to drive 30 minutes to a friend's place - one of my few connections since returning to Perth from India.

The contrast wasn't lost on me – just days earlier, I'd used Jimmy Brings to order alcohol that arrived within 20 minutes at 11:30 PM. Somehow, getting a 6-pack of beer was easier than medicine for a sick child.

That night changed everything for me.

The birth of an idea

The experience left me wondering: why wasn't there a medicine delivery service in Australia? None of the pharmacies offered delivery – too much red tape and regulation stood in the way. But I couldn't shake the feeling that there had to be a better solution.

In 2020, my brother Thiru and I took the plunge. We started Packapill from a small coworking space in Perth, partnering with a local community pharmacy for supply. In those early days, it was just the two of us. I would drive to do deliveries myself, sometimes an hour away, collecting prescriptions one at a time.

What kept us going were the people we helped – a family with multiple kids who couldn't easily leave home just to visit a pharmacy, or elderly people unable to walk who called us "lifesavers." Each delivery validated that we were solving a real problem.

The evolution to telehealth

By 2022, we saw an even bigger opportunity. If we could deliver medicine rapidly, why couldn't we connect patients with doctors just as quickly?

This insight led us to expand our vision. What made us different was our perspective. Unlike telehealth services founded by doctors, we approached healthcare from a technology angle first. This tech-focused foundation has been our competitive advantage from the start.

Through our journey, we've discovered something important about solving healthcare problems. The traditional approach to physician shortages is often brute force – simply trying to train more doctors. But we've found that technology can make the existing healthcare workforce dramatically more effective.

Hola isn't replacing traditional care – we're complementing it. Our platform enables doctors to focus more on clinical issues and less on administration. It creates flexible opportunities for providers, particularly female GPs seeking better work-life balance and rural doctors who can see patients online during periods when in-person visits are slower.

This approach has resonated with medical professionals and patients alike. Today, we've facilitated over 1.3 million telehealth consultations for almost 600,000 Australians, with an average wait time of under 15 minutes. Our journey hasn't been without challenges, but we've continued to focus on our core mission: making quality healthcare accessible to every Australian. The company has grown exponentially, achieving 3x revenue growth between FY23 and FY24. This success earned us the #4 spot on the AFR's Fast 100 List in 2023, validating both the market need and our approach to addressing it.

Looking to the future

Now, with our $10 million Series A round led by Healthylife, a wholly owned subsidiary of Woolworths, with participation from a leading insurance provider, M8 Ventures, FundWA, and other strategic investors, we're poised for our next chapter of growth.

Our partnership with Healthylife establishes Hola as their sole telehealth provider, allowing their customers to access online consultations 24/7. With our average wait time of less than 15 minutes, we're setting a new standard for healthcare accessibility.

This funding will enable us to better capture patient care across Australia, deepen our market presence, build a world-class team, and improve our infrastructure for future growth.

Every day, we remember that night when I couldn't get medicine for my son. That memory continues to drive our mission: ensuring no Australian faces the same struggle I did. Illness doesn’t only show up within 9-5 - and neither do we.

That's the future we're building at Hola Health.