PharmEasy raises $350 Mn round led by Prosus and TPG; enters unicorn club

Online pharmacy company PharmEasy, owned by API Holdings, has raised $350 million in its Series E round led by Prosus Ventures and TPG Growth. Existing investors including Temasek, CDPQ, LGT Lightrock, Eight Roads and Think Investments also participated in the round.

According to the company, it has closed a combination of primary and secondary funding of $323 million with an additional $27 million to be raised soon.

PharmEasy was in talks with the lead investors for the past six months. While the company did not disclose its valuation, sources aware of the development estimate it around $1.5 billion. In February, Canada’s second-largest pension fund CDPQ had received CCI not to acquire a 2% stake in PharmEasy’s parent. 

Entrackr’s sources said that PharmEasy was close to achieving the valuation of $1 billion in the transaction.  

PharmEasy has also filed documents with MCA which reflects that Prosus, Temasek, EightRoad Ventures, F Prime and five individuals have collectively invested Rs 1,260 crore or $170 million in this round. Prosus has invested Rs 1,120 crore in total while Temasek has infused Rs 35.71 crore. 

EightRoad Ventures and F Prime have invested Rs 19.04 crore and Rs 4.76 crore, respectively.

Apart from institutional investors, PharmEasy has raised Rs 80 crore from individuals including Siddharth Bhaskar Shah, Hardik Kishor Dedhia, Dhaval Rajesh Shah, Dharmil Nirupam Sheth and Harsh Shailesh Parekh. The investment amount of TPG Growth and other investors mentioned in the release could not be ascertained. 

PharmEasy will utilise the fresh proceeds to deepen its market engagement to over 100K pharmacies and over 20 million patients and increase the range of services.

PharmEasy essentially enables discoverability, last-mile delivery and connectivity tools to more than 60,000 pharmacies and 4,000 doctors in 16,000 pin codes across India. It also provides working capital credit for pharmacists.

Over the past year, the online pharmacy space has witnessed large consolidations. In August, Reliance acquired NetMeds in a deal worth $88.5 million followed by the merger of PharmEasy and Medlife. At present, Medlife’s promoters own a 19.95% stake in the merged entity while the rest is commanded by PharmEasy and its backers. According to media reports, Tata Group is also in the process of acquiring a majority stake in 1mg.