Brussels, Belgium-based Doctena has raised a €4.5 million for its medical booking platform that lets doctors offer online booking to their patients. According to TechCrunch, the investment came from undisclosed private investors, business angels, and debt; and the company will use the funds to expand beyond its launch markets of Luxembourg, Netherlands and Belgium (Benelux countries); starting with Switzerland.

“We want to ensure that every patient sees a doctor without picking up the phone. Patients want to find a doctor and book an appointment in 3 clicks,” says Doctena founder and CEO Patrick Kersten. “On the other hand, doctors are very reluctant to adopt new tools or change existing processes in their practice. So the challenge is to combine an intuitive, mobile ready user interface with the local, market leading applications that doctors are already using. By now, being able to adapt our software quickly to all these local applications is one of our competitive advantages.”

Doctena’s platform provides doctors with an easy tool to manage daily schedules, while patients get convenience.On its way to conquering Europe, Doctena will have to overcome regulatory challenges particular to each European country. Also, they will have to fight competing services such as DocPlanner and Doctolib, and perhaps at one point the U.S.-based ZocDoc, which has yet to expand to the Old Continent.

“We are confident that we have a competitive edge in the markets we operate as well as the ones we plan to enter, given the fact that we are a ‘European’ project from day one, with a multi-national management team and structure, where we can easily add additional countries,” says Kersten.

On one hand, Doctena’s platform targets doctors and clinics, offering them an easy tool to manage daily schedules. On the other, it offers convenience for patients, allowing them to find and then book a doctor either from their computer or mobile phone.

The online/mobile doctor booking market is still a nascent one and there’s still room for new entrants. As more users get accustomed to online doctor bookings, the market will undoubtedly continue to grow. And we’ll see consolidation taking place. Meanwhile, we’ll keep watching. Stay tuned…