Zeel Launches As A Booking Engine For Alternative Healthcare Providers

Zeel, a startup that offers consumers a way to find and book massage therapists, personal trainers, nutritionists, acupuncturists and other wellness practitioners, has raised $1.5 million in funding from Matt Ocko of Archimedes Capital, Esther Dyson, Ken Cron, Ravi Mhatre, Mark Oldman, Ken Fox, Patrick Spain, KIT Digital CEO Kaleil Isaza-Tuzman, Judson Traphagen and Tim Kendall.

Similar to the way ZocDoc allows you to find doctors and book appointments online, Zeel offers a way for consumers to find alternative healthcare providers. With Zeel you can learn treatments for stress, pain, obesity, and other specific conditions; browse profiles of qualified and vetted Zeel Experts; see prices; check real-time appointment availability; and book online.

On Zeel, consumers can also consult member reviews, a Q&A forum with answers from Zeel Experts, and an alternative healthcare library that covers everything from acupuncture to Zen Shiatsu. Verticals for Zeel include massage therapy, personal training, yoga, Pilates, acupuncture, and nutrition counseling. Currently, Zeel has a network of 1,000 Experts in the New York metropolitan area who are enabled for online booking. Zeel also connects consumers to an additional 30,000 qualified alternative healthcare practitioners.

Zeel’s founder and CEO Samer Hamadeh, co-founded Vault.com and was formerly an EIR at Lightspeed Venture Partners, says that there isn’t a discovery mechanism for alternative healthcare providers that provide specialized experiences such as lymphatic massages or acupuncture treatments for smoking therapies, at-home massages and more. Zeel takes a booking fee (around ten percent) of each appointment booked.

TechCrunch readers can click here to sign up and get $25 off any service booked on Zeel.com, using the input code ‘TC25’ during the sign-up process (this credit is good through February 15).