RingMD is a digital-health technology company that builds configurable telehealth, behavioral-health, crisis-response, and care-coordination systems for healthcare organizations and public agencies. Its software combines virtual visits, clinical workflows, data exchange, operational reporting, and secure web and mobile access.

Justin Fulcher founded RingMD in 2012. The service launched publicly in 2013.

The question that started RingMD

The idea began in October 2012 on a bus from Jakarta to Bogor.

When the bus stopped for fuel, Fulcher noticed an older woman and a young child washing up with water from a roadside gutter. Meanwhile, an Android phone in the woman’s hand streamed YouTube.

Fulcher was shocked at the juxtaposition. How is 3G internet available on affordable smartphones but basic medical care not accessible. If mobile video could reach an ordinary phone, could a doctor?

Before the bus reached Bogor, Fulcher had begun writing the first lines of what would become RingMD code. Over the following weeks, he turned the question into a working prototype. The first version was a simple directory of doctors, with photographs, consultation prices, professional experience, and résumé information. The first doctor on RingMD practiced at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

RingMD launched publicly in December 2013, released its first Android application in November 2014, and incorporated RingMD Pte. Ltd. in Singapore in 2015. By then, the company had raised approximately $500,000 in seed financing and supported hundreds of doctors and thousands of online consultations.

From marketplace to international scale

RingMD began as a direct-to-consumer marketplace. Doctors could make themselves available, set their rates, and consult patients online. The company later expanded into health information, distribution partnerships, and institutional telehealth.

In 2016, RingMD raised $10 million in Series A financing at a valuation of US$85 million. In fewer than 16 months, the team grew from about 10 people to nearly 300, with personnel in 12 countries. RingMD’s products and distribution partnerships reached millions of people.

In India, RingMD worked with CSC e-Governance Services India (Digital India) to extend telehealth through the Common Service Centres network serving rural communities. Microsoft profiled both that work and RingMD’s use of Azure.

RingMD also made a health question-and-answer service available through Facebook’s Free Basics platform and built a health chatbot called Cardea for Skype using the Microsoft Bot Framework. Additionally, RingMD launched the first healthcare chatbot on Facebook Messenger, which Mark Zuckerberg announced at the 2017 F8 Developer conference.

In 2018, Singapore’s Ministry of Health selected RingMD as the first of two participants in its telemedicine regulatory sandbox.

At its peak, RingMD helped to serve approximately 38 million patient encounters through the combined platform.

2018 restructuring and U.S. expansion

In 2018, following several years of rapid international expansion, RingMD undertook a stakeholder-approved restructuring. The process included refocusing the company markets, some layoffs and optimization, and a more focused operating structure.

The restructuring also brought additional partners into the business to help RingMD grow and scale in the United States. Together, the company and its partners moved RingMD from a global consumer marketplace toward digital-health infrastructure for healthcare institutions and governments, with greater emphasis on integration, security, support, and operational reliability.

In 2020, RingMD and EY deployed a national COVID-19 telehealth and digital-triage system in Chile. Company and partner records report that the initial deployment went live within 72 hours and supported more than 500,000 patients. A contemporaneous brief hosted by the National Governors Association described the Chile deployment and its rapid implementation model.

Later in 2020, RingMD participated in Y Combinator’s Summer program. RingMD Company records show that RingMD raised approximately US$2.5 million in SAFE financing during this period as the U.S. operation pursued its institutional and public-sector strategy.

Selected public-service milestones

  • Federal healthcare: In 2021, the Indian Health Service awarded AA RingMD a clinical video telehealth contract. IHS began implementation at federal facilities in October 2022 for patient-to-provider and provider-to-provider visits. Company records also document an IHS agency Authorization to Operate for the cloud service. The 2022 IHS Director’s Award for Customer Service was awarded to AA RingMD and the IHS group working on the project.
  • Emergency response: In 2024, HHS’s Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response awarded RingMD USA Inc. an indefinite-delivery contract for rapidly activatable, all-hazards virtual-care capability. The contract establishes a vehicle through which HHS can order services.
  • State behavioral health and crisis services: Alaska identifies RingMD as its partner for statewide, round-the-clock telehealth serving people enrolled in two disability-waiver programs. In Ohio, RecoveryRachel is live statewide, and RingMD USA is developing Ohio’s centralized technology platform for a network of 19 local 988 contact centers.
  • FedRAMP: On December 2, 2025, the RingMD Telemedicine cloud service, listed under RingMD USA Inc., became FedRAMP Certified under Rev. 5 at the Class C (Moderate) impact level through the agency path.

RingMD today

Today, RingMD develops telehealth, behavioral-health navigation, crisis-response, data-exchange, and operational-support software for healthcare organizations and public agencies. Its RingMD Telemedicine cloud service is FedRAMP Certified.

Across those settings, the underlying problem remains the one that first appeared on a road in Indonesia: how can a useful network reach people when distance, infrastructure, or fragmented systems stand between them and care?

The answer is more than simply an application connecting a patient and a doctor. It is the technology, workflow, security, data, training, and support required to make that connection dependable.

RingMD’s history spans two connected operating models: an international consumer marketplace built for broad access, followed by a U.S.-based organization focused on institutional delivery. The 2018 restructuring created the foundation for that next chapter, which was shaped by the investors, operators, employees, partners, customers, and partner personnel who helped RingMD grow in the United States.

The founding mission also remained consistent: make affordable healthcare more accessible regardless of geography. The business model changed; the reason for doing the work did not. What changed was RingMD’s understanding of what access requires. It depends not only on connecting a patient and clinician, but on the workflow, security, integration, training, and support required to make that connection dependable.

Read the full RingMD Company History.

Historical details and financing, staffing, and reach figures are drawn from RingMD company official records, third-party financial audits and accounts, and key team members’ firsthand accounts. Public milestones are linked to contemporaneous reporting and government records.

Last reviewed: August 6, 2026.