Flipkart forays into healthcare space with acquisition of Sastasundar Marketplace

Ecommerce giant Flipkart has acquired majority stake in SastaSundar Marketplace, which owns and operates an online pharmacy and digital healthcare platform, for an undisclosed value. This also marks its entry into the healthcare sector with the launch of Flipkart Health+ brand.

Following this acquisition, Flipkart Health+ will begin with e-pharmacy and will add new healthcare services such as e-diagnostics and e-consultation over time.

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A statement from Flipkart said, SastaSundar offers a digital healthcare and pharmacy platform supported by a network of more than 490 pharmacies. It further noted that it aims to address the issues of access to affordable and quality healthcare in India by providing original products from authorised sources and delivering them across the country.

SastaSundar was founded in 2013 by B L Mittal and Ravi Kant Sharma, and is backed by investors such as Mitsubishi Corporation and Rohto Pharmaceuticals of Japan.

On the development, Ravi Iyer, Senior Vice President and Head – Corporate Development, Flipkart, said, “The consumer internet ecosystem in India is growing rapidly as consumers recognise the opportunities and convenience that digital adoption is enabling in their lives. With growing awareness and focus on health heightened by the pandemic, there is a large opportunity and demand for affordable healthcare and ancillary offerings.”

According to Flipkart, its venture into the healthcare sector is part of its efforts to address the growing consumer internet ecosystem, providing end-to-end offerings from travel to healthcare as digital technologies continue to democratise access to products and services.

SastaSundar leverages AI and data technologies and integrates with personal counselling to provide a wider range of healthcare services.

SastaSundar Healthbuddy founder and chairman B L Mittal said, “Through this partnership with Flipkart, we see an opportunity to further grow and reach a larger consumer base, using complementary technologies and logistics infrastructure.”

Flipkart Health+ will leverage the combined strengths of the Flipkart Group, which includes its pan-India reach and technology capabilities, with SastaSundar’s expertise to provide consumers end-to-end offerings in the health-tech ecosystem, the statement noted.

This is Flipkart's second acquisition of a company which is not part of its core ecommerce offering. In April this year, it announced the acquisition of online travel aggregator – Cleartrip.