[Funding alert] Healthtech startup Truemeds raises $22M in Series B led by Westbridge Capital

Mumbai-based telehealth platform Truemeds has raised $22 million in Series B funding led by private equity fund WestBridge Capital. The new round also saw participation from existing investors including InfoEdge Ventures, Asha Impact, and IAN Fund. 

The round witnessed oversubscription from new and existing investors. However, the company decided to cap the raise to $22 million.

As per the official release, the startup plans to utilise the fresh funds to accelerate growth in the untapped domestic market and expand its coverage across the country.

In June 2021, it raised $5 million in a Series A round from existing investor InfoEdge Ventures, Asha Impact and Indian Angel Network Fund. 

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Akshat Nayyar, Co-founder and CEO of Truemeds, said,

“India is one of the very few markets where we have pseudo-categorisation of medicines in branded and generic-generic to create different price tiers between them. 95 percent of the drugs sold in India are off-patent (thus technically generics). There is absolutely no difference in the scientific composition of generics and branded drugs.”

“Indian generic to generic market is growing at 1.5 times the overall pharmaceutical market and following the US landscape where the generics prescription share moved from 40 percent in 2005 to over 85 percent in 2019. The market move towards generics is inevitable and Truemeds will lead that change,” added Akshat.

Founded in 2019 by ex-Abbott executives Akshat Nayyar and Dr Kunal Wani, Truemeds is a telehealth platform in India focused on reducing the burden of medicine bills by recommending best value alternate brands to chronic patients through its proprietary algorithm and free doctor teleconsultation.

As per the startup, it leverages its intelligent medicine recommendation engine to help patients find the best value medicines from the top one percent medicine manufacturers in India and provides free doctor consultations to help patients make the right decisions for themselves. 

According to the company, an average Truemeds customer saves around 47 percent on their medicine bills and this can go as high as 70 percent. That is a life changing number for an average Indian chronic patient spending Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 every month on medicines.

Truemeds claims that it has witnessed phenomenal growth in the last two years on the back of strong product-market-fit and a massive organic demand.

Sandeep Singhal, Managing Director, Westbridge Capital, added, 

“We are excited to partner with Truemeds as they create value for patients by delivering high quality drugs at affordable prices at the patients' doorstep. The founding team’s strong category understanding has resulted in the success at Truemeds.”

Having served 5 lakh + customers with little marketing effort, the startup finds this the right time to double down and scale their marketing and operations beyond Maharashtra. The company is currently fulfilling 1 lakh + orders every month. In an effort to improve the customer experience and reach, the company plans to triple its fulfilment centres across the country in the next six months. 

Amit Behl, Partner, InfoEdge Ventures, commented, 

“Truemeds is carving out a good place for itself in the Indian pharma market with its simple but powerful proposition of reducing costs of medicine bills. Seldom do we witness an ecommerce biz model operating with viable economics while growing rapidly and delivering attractive savings for customers. Execution by the team has been very impressive, and with this fundraise they have the necessary capital to put in the building blocks required for rapid, long term, and sustainable growth.”