Bessemer Venture, others inject $30 Mn Series C round in PharmEasy

E-pharmacy startup PharmEasy has raised around $30 million in its Series-C round led by Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from Orios Venture Partners, JM Financial, Manipal Education, and Medical Group (MEMG) and Trifecta Capital.

The development comes on the heels of Bessemer announcement to invest $40-50 million in Indian startups this year. It also ends the speculations surfaced a month ago, which said that the VC firm is losing interest in Indian unit and may halt operations.

PharmEasy will use the money to scale up operations and technology. Besides, it also aims to evangelise a full-stack model wherein a patient, doctor, and pharmacist can meet on single platform.

Founded in 2015 by Dhaval Shah and Dharmil Sheth, PharmEasy is run by 91 Streets Media Pvt. Ltd. The startup connects patients with pharmacy stores. It delivers medicines over 710 cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Thane, and Ahmedabad.

Apart from medicine delivery, its diagnostic tests are available in Mumbai (including Thane and Navi Mumbai), Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, Bangalore, and Ahmedabad. The firm claims to serve over a million customers.

In April last year, the Mumbai-based pharmacy aggregator had raised $18 million in Series B round led by venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners. According to a company statement, Aarin Capital, Astarc Ventures, and Trifecta Capital have also participated in the round.

In 2016, the company had raised around Rs 33 crore ($5 million) in Series A round of funding from Ascent, Bessemer, Orios, Aarin Capital, Astarc Ventures and Medi Assist Healthcare Services Pvt Ltd.

Apart from PharmEasy, several startups operate in the segment including Netmeds, MedPlus, Myra, MedsOnWay, and 1mg. All these companies have also secured funding from various VCs and private equity funds.

A sector report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry said India’s online pharmacy segment is expected to grow at 15% annually to touch $55 billion by 2020.

The development was reported by ET.

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