Molbio becomes second unicorn in Sep with $1.5 Bn valuation

Healthcare diagnostic firm Molbio on Monday announced a $85 million round led by Temasek. The Goa-based firm has now received its first tranche from the Singapore-based investor via V Sciences Investments at a unicorn valuation.

The board at Molbio has passed a special resolution to issue 7,340 equity shares to V Sciences Investments (an investment arm of Temasek) at an issue price of Rs 54,495.91 per share to raise Rs 40 crore or $4.9 million. The rest of the money is likely to come soon.

As per Fintrackr’s estimates, the company’s valuation jumped 8X to 1.53 billion or Rs 12,292 crore (post money) from $182.7 million in their last fundraise. It has become the second unicorn in September after Tata 1mg. The online pharmacy entered the $1 billion valuation club in an internal funding round.

Molbio Diagnostics’ flagship product Truenat provides real-time IoT-enabled testing kits for over 40 diseases in addition to TB, including COVID-19, hepatitis, HIV, HPV, and vector-borne diseases like dengue, chikungunya, and malaria. In March, the Indian government deployed Molbio Diagnostics’ Truenat platform as a frontline tool in the special door-to-door TB (Tuberculosis) screening initiative.

Molbio claims that Truenat real-time PCR has been deployed in over 5,000 testing centres across over 40 countries around the world. Currently, promoters of the company hold 86.11% of the stake whereas institutional investors command only 13.89% of the capital before its unicorn round.

Molbio’s collection from operations soared to Rs 1,272 crore as compared to Rs 51.53 crore in FY20, according to its annual financial statements with the Registrar of Companies (RoC). The company is yet to disclose its FY22 numbers. Importantly, it posted a profit of Rs 472.7 crore in FY21 against a loss of Rs 16.27 crore in FY20.

Molbio aims to become a one-billion-dollar revenue company in the next 3-5 years by selling surveillance platforms for various diseases globally.

As of now, the Indian startup ecosystem has seen 108 unicorns. Of these, 43 startups achieved the feat last year while 23 startups have managed to go past the $1 billion valuation mark in 2022 so far.