After Meesho and CRED, Pharmeasy parent company API Holdings has joined the race of becoming a unicorn, as it is raising $350 million in a new funding round co-led by Cape Town-based Prosus Ventures (formerly Naspers Ventures) and US-based TPG Capital at a valuation of around $1.5 billion.

Existing investors, including Temasek, CDPQ, LGT Lightrock, Eight Roads Ventures, Think Investments, also participated in the funding round.

According to the company, The raised funding is in a combination of primary and secondary investment. The company has received $323 million, while an additional $27 million to be raised soon.

API Holdings will infuse the funding to expand its reach to pharmacies from 80,000 to 1,20,000 in the next couple of months. The company will continue to invest a significant amount in its supply chain operations, it said. “It took us eight years to reach 80,000 pharmacies and in the next two years, we want to get to 120,000 more pharmacies,” said Siddharth Shah, Co-founder of API Holdings.

He further said, Our main focus is to digitize existing pharmacies by connecting them to an effective and efficient supply chain.

Prior to this, Startups including Meesho, CRED, Digit Insurance, Innovaccer, Infra.market, and Five Star Finance, has joined the unicorn club after raising million dollar funding from various investors.

The report comes at a time when Reliance, Tata, Amazon, and other giants are eyeing to grab the significant market share in the online pharmacy industry. Last year, Reliance Industries had acquired majority stakes in Netmeds for Rs 620 crore. While Amazon is also getting into the pharmacy business, earlier in August 2020, It had launched ‘Amazon Pharmacy‘, an online medicine delivery service in Bengaluru.

It is worth mentioning that pandemic lockdown and social distancing have prompted customers to order medicines online from various platforms like Netmeds, 1mg, and Pharmeasy. Big companies are also trying to grab market share in the e-pharmacy industry.

API Holdings claims that its business-to-business (B2B) pharma operations are recording gross merchandise value (GMV) of Rs 600 crore per month. The company also said it is building a telemedicine business to tap into the online health consultation segment.

Speaking on the investment, Ashutosh Sharma from Prosus Ventures, said, “It’s a very large market and does not just impact the top 10 million or 15 million consumers in India. It’s an all-pervasive product, all 1.3 billion people in India use healthcare in some way.”

Major pharma giants such as Sun Pharma, DigiHealth, Lupin, Alkem, Torrent Pharma, Apollo Pharmacy, among others, also entering the online pharmacy retail business.

In earlier February 2021, API Holdings subsidiary Pharmeasy had raised Rs 360 crore in funding from TPG Growth. It competes with 1mg, Netmeds, Medlife, Medibuddy, Apollo247, among others.

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Virtual distribution platform onecode has raised an undisclosed amount in seed financing, led by way of early-stage challenge capital company Waterbridge ventures

Angel buyers which include former instances net chief approach officer miten sampat, haptik founder aakrit vaish, one impression founder apaksh gupta, appyhigh founder venus dhuria, in addition to rocky mohan and Siddharth Mohan of vintage monk and gourmand passport repute, additionally participated within the funding spherical.

The startup had earlier raised angel investment from the founders of dining out platform Dineout, which is owned by using times internet, part of the times organization that also publishes this newspaper.

The organization plans to use the funds to widen its consumer base, fortify technology, and to expand its group.

Onecode, based by way of manish shara and yash desai, connects new-age digital-first brands with its community of sellers to promote services and products to users who are not so tech-savvy in tier-2, tier-3, and tier-four cities.

The sellers act as a bridge among brands and clients who seek in-person interaction, training, and physical touchpoints to purchase on-line goods or services, and earn referral revenue on every transaction.

“Getting access to those segments of the market which have remained inaccessible thru the prevailing virtual channels is crucial for manufacturers in popular and d2c manufacturers particularly. One code is laying down a network of dealers at floor zero so one can take the manufacturers at once to the doorstep of customers who have in no way transacted digitally,” stated Ashish Jain, partner, Waterbridge ventures.

The company says it presently has a network of approximately 200000 dealers and tie-u. S. A. With on line manufacturers like pharmeasy, 1mg, dr vaidya’s, kaya kids, and The Man Company. It’s also in talks to onboard brands throughout categories like health, clothing, and grooming.

“one code will enchantment to brands trying other modes of selling which include 1-1 assisted sales, replicating the offline buying experience for clients,” stated onecode co-founder Manish shara.

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