Coronavirus: Uber partners with Medlife to deliver medicines across five cities
The company said in a release that it is leveraging its technology and vast network of delivery partners to support Medlife in delivering medicines safely to consumers’ doorsteps.
Uber on Thursday announced a partnership with Medlife, a Bengaluru-based e-health platform, to provide residents across Kolkata, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, and Pune access to prescription and other over-the-counter medicines, amid the ongoing national lockdown.
The company said in a release that it is leveraging its technology and vast network of delivery partners to support Medlife in delivering medicines safely to consumers’ doorsteps so they can continue to observe government guidelines for reducing the spread of COVID-19.
Shiva Shailendran, General Manager, North India, Uber, said,
“We are pleased to announce our partnership with Medlife, our first with an online pharmacy platform, to support last mile delivery of prescription and other medicines. Through this service, we continue to provide earning opportunities for drivers.’’
In light of government guidelines to maintain safety and hygiene levels for containing the spread of COVID-19, all drivers associated with this service are being provided with masks, gloves, sanitisers, and safety training, the release added.
Manish Garg, Head of Supply Chain Management, Medlife said,
“Our aim is to ensure timely and hassle-free delivery of all essential medical supplies to our customers. Uber has the capabilities and mode to help us tide through this phase and we look forward to a very fruitful partnership in the days ahead.”
Since its inception in November 2014, Medlife claims to have scaled rapidly to become the first and only e-health platform to surpass Rs 100 crore GMV in a month. It currently services 29 states, 4,000 cities and 20,000 pin codes in India fulfilling over 30,000 deliveries daily. The company is operating over 30 fulfillment centers across India.
In 2019, Medlife raised two rounds of investment in April and December, where it raised Rs 118.95 crore ($17 million) in an equity funding round from Founder Tushar Kumar’s family trust - Prasid Uno Family Trust, and Rs 110 crore from Wilson Global Opportunities Fund, respectively. It also acquired Mumbai-based Medlabz in January, and Bengaluru-based medicine delivery startup Myra Medicines in May 2019. Former Myntra CEO Ananth Narayanan also joined the startup as its Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in August.
The startup’s operating revenue rose to Rs 363.4 crore in the year ending March 2019 from Rs 135.7 crore in FY18.
Edited by Kanishk Singh
