Medical procurement platform secures AirTasker partner, homes in on health markets

A New South Wales medical procurement platform has global expansion in the crosshairs having raised $2 million from tech company AirTasker (ASX: ART) co-founder Jonathan Lui.

Disrupter Restocq, an online ordering platform, allows dental and medical practices to procure items through one site which the organisation claims can save practices up to $30,000 annually – plus administration time.

The business is owned by Dr Namita Gupta and Dr Stephan Kantharah who own Sydney, Newcastle and Gosford.

Restocq was born out of the challenges the Dentistry duo faced with inventory and HR. Gupta and Kantharah couldn’t find a suitable online procurement platform which allows for invoice creation, payments and inventory management to suit their practice management activities. 

“Before launching Restocq.com, we ran into the same problems every month; running out of stock, having products expire and getting caught in a procedure without something we need,” Gupta told Business News Australia. 

Restocq has about 80 dental-practice customers already and is targeting 90 per cent of Australia’s 15,000 non-corporate dental practices. 

The $2 million nod from AirTasker co-founder Lui followed $1.4 million in seed funding the business generated in December 2021. The company has performed beta testing of its technology with about 40 practices Down Under.  

Restocq claims it can solve four procurement problems: 

• Inventory management: Checking stock levels and tracking to prevent overordering or underordering.
• Budgeting and managing KPIs: Up-to-date, real-time data – eradicating reliance on spreadsheets.
• Removing key individual risk: Removes the risk of a specific person holding all the IP and ordering information for a practice.
• Creation of a singular singular platform: Allows stock to be ordered from all suppliers contrary to ordering via supplier websites, SMS or via phone. 

“By providing a seamless way to manage procurement, Restocq takes a huge weight of responsibility off the shoulders of practice owners, allowing them to focus on patient service and business development,” Gupta told Business News Australia. 

Lui told the publication Restocq has potential to pivot into other medical industries, including veterinary. 

“Restocq.com is a truly revolutionary product for the dental, medical, and vet industries and is growing at a lightning fast rate, with over 80 dental practices in Australia using the platform as a procurement solution already,” said Lui, an Australian Top 100 Young Entrepreneurs lister whose company listed on the ASX last year.

Restocq’s emergence comes as corporate players swoop on dentistry businesses in Australia and New Zealand in an effort to build market share. 

Private equity group BGH Capital, which acquired Queensland’s 1300 Smiles Ltd practices in 2021, secured Bupa NZ’s dental business in February this year. (Australian Financial Review) 

Hear more about Restoq by heading to Talking Health Tech podcast.