[Funding alert] Generico raises venture capital of Rs 10 crore as a part of its Series A round

Alteria Capital, the venture debt fund, has invested Rs 10 crore in Mumbai-based pharmaceutical startup Generico as a part of the $14 million that the startup had raised in September 2019.

The round was led by Lightbox. So far, the team has raised $16 million funding. Alteria Capital has a total corpus of Rs 962 crore. 

Speaking of the investment, Vinod Murali, Managing Partner, Alteria Capital, said,

“Generico is on its way to build a strong network of omnichannel healthcare delivery with pharmacies as the starting point. Sid and the team at Generico have been working hard in creating a brand, which has the potential to become a surrogate for trust and efficient patient care which can then be extended to other adjacent opportunities as well.”

The startup plans to increase its footprint to 150 outlets by 2021 and help people manage their health better by providing continuous support and coaching, and meeting their other healthcare needs as well.

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Founded by IIT Bombay batchmates and friends Siddharth Gadia and Girish Agarwal, Generico has 49 outlets in Mumbai from where it sells generic and branded medicine presently.

Siddharth, Co-founder and CEO, said,

“Our connect with Alteria first happened six months back and as young founders, we had many concerns at that time. However, Vinod and team had very patiently helped us navigate through all the concerns and once we decided to move forward, they worked with us through the whole process and helped us close the transaction extremely fast. Being extremely transparent, supportive and committed to future growth are the kind of partners we look for and are very fortunate to find them in Alteria.” 

The team claims to be doing close to 200,000 transactions a month, and says it has made gross sales of over Rs 100 crore in two and a half years. 

Siddharth explains there is a significant push of branded generic medicines, which are primarily marketed by doctors. This is why generics are largely neglected. He explains the market for traded generics is four to five percent of the $19 billion branded generic medicine. 

“While there has been a push towards traded generics, the execution has been ineffective. Also, doctors don’t have enough time to spread the word on generics. There isn’t a strong capability and model to understand the quality and pass on the information to the consumer,” says Siddharth. 

(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)

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