Aknamed acquired by PharmEasy at $144 Mn valuation; co-founders exit

IPO-bound online pharmacy company PharmEasy has acquired a controlling stake in Bengaluru-based healthcare supply chain startup Aknamed in a primary and secondary deal. This is the second acquisition for PharmEasy in 2021. In June, it had acquired 66.1% stake in listed diagnostics firm Thyrocare for about Rs 4,546 crore.

Aknamed has approved the allotment of 975,937 equity shares at Rs 3,155.94 to API Holdings to raise Rs 308 crore or close to $42 million from the parent company of PharmEasy, regulatory filings show.

Importantly, PharmEasy has completely bought out the stake of five promoters (co-founders) of Aknamed who collectively controlled a 50.67% stake. Post this transaction, Aknamed will become a subsidiary of API Holdings Private Limited (PharmEasy’s holding entity).

According to Fintrackr’s estimates, investment by PharmEasy in Aknamed has been concluded at an enterprise valuation of Rs 1,060 crore or $144 million. PharmEasy was reportedly in talks to buy Aknamed for Rs 1,200-1,300 crore.

In the secondary deal, PharmEasy has spent around Rs 380 crore ($51.6 million) to acquire stakes of five co-founders: Saurabh Pandey, Mahadevan Narayanmoni, Mayank Kapoor, Varun Vohra, Shaunak Joshi and around Rs 21 crore ($2.8 million) to acquire stakes of angels. 

Pandey and Narayanmoni are the top beneficiaries among co-founders to get an exit worth $21 million and $17.7 million respectively. After the fresh allotments of shares, PharmEasy has a total 67.3% stake in Aknamed followed by Lightstone Fund which controls a 31.3% stake.

Queries sent to PharmEasy and Aknamed did not elicit an immediate response. 

Three-year-old Aknamed streamlines procurement for hospitals using its cloud-based supply chain software. The platform enables hospitals, nursing homes and clinics to track product movement and consumption. In its second full year of operations, the company saw its revenue shoot up 17.8X to Rs 23.92 crore during FY20 while posting a loss of Rs 3.4 crore. 

Meanwhile, PharmEasy is also negotiating a $200-million primary and $100 million secondary funding round. According to an ET report, the deal may value the company at around $6 billion. PharmEasy had raised $300 million in June and has scooped up around $650 million in the ongoing fiscal year. The Tiger Global-backed company was valued at $4.2 billion during the latest tranche and is eyeing an IPO at a valuation of $9-10 billion. 

On Monday, PharmEasy also announced that it had appointed five new independent directors including Subramanian Somasundaram, the former chief financial officer of Titan and Ramakant Sharma, founder and chief operating officer of Livspace to its board. It now has 12 members on its board.