Online pharmacy startup PharmEasy raises $50M in Series C funding

Mumbai-based online platform Pharmeasy will use the fund raise to strengthen tech capabilities in operations and to provide personalised healthcare solutions to consumers.

A week after Mumbai-based pharma company Pharmeasy announced that it had raised debt financing of Rs 40 crore led by InnoVen Capital, it said that it has raised funding of $ 50 million led by Eight Roads Ventures India, the proprietary investment arm of FIL (Fidelity International Limited), F-Prime Capital, Nandan Nilkeni and Sanjeev Aggarwal-backed Fundamentum partnership, and San Francisco-based hedge fund Think Investments. Avendus acted as the advisor for this round of funding.

This February, the Mumbai startup had raised undisclosed funding led by Bessmer Venture Partners, MEMG (Manipal Group), Orios Venture Partners, JM Financials and Trifecta Capital. Last year, PharmEasy had raised Series B funding of $16 million led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Orios Venture Partners.

PharmEasy has set up a technology team in Mumbai and Bengaluru, and now intends to scale both.  

The company was started in 2015 by Dharmil Sheth and Dr Dhaval Shah with a vision to deliver genuine medicines at affordable rates by optimising the supply chain and logistics. The venture has grown from five people working out of the spare office space of the parent of one of the co-founders to a 300-member team spread across seven cities. 

“This round of funding reflects the confidence investors have in us and in our ability to change the face of healthcare in the country. This infusion will be utilised to build a larger consumer base, work towards improving our technology base, and put the company on a rapid growth trajectory without compromising on the superlative consumer experience that we have been known for always,” Dhaval says. 

While the team refused to share revenue details, Dhaval says they are seeing a year-on-year revenue growth of 250 to 300 percent. The month-on-month growth is close to 30 percent. 

The company has created an integrated platform with the vision to be a one-stop shop for all healthcare needs of a consumer. They currently offer a range of services, including medicine delivery, teleconsultation, sample collection for diagnostic tests as well as subscription-based services, currently live in a few cities. 

Pharmeasy operates on a full-stack model - they procure medicines directly from the manufacturers and deliver it to the customer's doorstep. 

Making healthcare affordable

“It has always been our aim to make healthcare affordable and accessible to everyone. And the new funding will only push us closer to achieving this goal, helping us change the healthcare ecosystem in the country. We plan to use this fund raise to strengthen our tech capabilities in operations and also to ensure that we are able to provide personalised healthcare solutions to the consumers. We are so excited that we are enabling this industry with technological interventions, which have never happened in the past,” Dharmil says. 

The pharma industry is currently pegged at $15 billion, and some of the issues that the sector faces include low fill rates, delivery delays, and expired and spurious medicines. Despite the regulatory challenges, the pharma space is growing significantly. Other main players in the space include Matrix Partners-backed Myra, Sequoia-backed Practo and 1mg. Chennai based online pharma platform Netmeds acquired Justdoc recently.