Truemeds, a telehealth platform in India, has introduced dwelling $22 million in a Sequence B funding spherical led by WestBridge Capital.
Its present traders, InfoEdge Ventures, Asha Affect and IAN Fund, additionally joined the investing spherical.
WHAT IT DOES
By its propriety algorithms, Truemeds recommends various worth medicines. Prospects can get a free e-consultation after importing their prescriptions or inserting an order. At present serving greater than 500,000 prospects, the Android and web-based service additionally presents free medicines supply across the state of Maharashtra.
WHAT IT’S FOR
The corporate in a press release stated it plans to make use of its contemporary funds to speed up development in native untapped markets whereas increasing its protection throughout India.
Over the subsequent six months, Truemeds shall be tripling its fulfilment centres to enhance its attain. Presently, the telehealth agency is fulfilling over 100,000 orders month-to-month.
The most recent fundraising occasion follows final 12 months’s Sequence A investing spherical the place the corporate raised $5 million.
WHY IT MATTERS
Akshat Nayyar, CEO and co-founder of Truemeds, is of the view that there’s a pseudo-categorisation of medicines in India to create completely different value tiers between them. He claims that 95% of the medication bought in India are “off-patent” or generic. “There’s completely no distinction within the scientific composition of generics and branded medication,” he stated.
As over 250 million Indian sufferers with continual illnesses spend between 15%-20% of their household earnings on medicines, Truemeds is recommending worth generic alternate options to assist sufferers save as much as 70% of their medication spending.
The home generic-generic market, in keeping with Truemeds, is rising 1.5 occasions the general pharmaceutical market, mirroring the expansion of the generic prescription market share within the US, which jumped to 85% in 2019 from 40% in 2005.
MARKET SNAPSHOT
There have been quite a lot of acquisitions of digital pharmacies in India not too long ago. 1MG Applied sciences, which operates a digital well being platform providing medicines, on-line diagnostics, and teleconsultations, has bought a majority of its shares to Tata Digital, the IT service arm of Tata Sons.
Flipkart, one of many main e-commerce companies in India, additionally purchased a majority stake in on-line pharmacy startup SastaSundar, which was not too long ago relaunched as Flipkart Well being+.
