INDIA- PharmEasy, an e-commerce drug supply store is now valued at US$ 1.8B after B capital bought stakes worth US$ 20M of the company.
Prior to the investment, Pharmeasy was valued at US$ 1.5billion and is among the few Indian startups that have been able to achieve a unicorn status.
B capital, a multi-stage global venture capital firm, bought the stakes from Everstone Capital an Indian based investment company that decided to sell part of the PharmEasy stakes.
Earlier this year, PharmEasy closed the acquisition of smaller rival Medlife and is reported to be have clocked a monthly revenue of Rs 300 crore owing to this acquisition.
Meanwhile, the company is also conducting a $3 million buyback of employee stock ownership plans (Esops), which precedes a US$ 13M Esops buybacks done in over a span of 3 months.
PharmEasy is eyeing an IPO at a valuation worth $3 billion but for now its IPO plans remain unchanged and is in talks with bankers.
With the pandemic prompting more individuals to embrace digital commerce, the e-pharma sector is among those to benefit from this.
Consumers worldwide spent nearly $4.29 trillion online in a pandemic-fueled 2020, up from almost $3.46 trillion the prior year, according to Digital Commerce 360 estimates.
The 24.1% year-over-year jump in global online sales was an increase from 17.9% growth in 2019.
An estimate of about six million new households have tried online purchase of medicines in the past year, taking the total user base to about nine million.
The seven-year-old startup is now looking to scale up its operations within the digital commerce space and widen its reach in the country.
It plans to expand its base of pharmacies to 120,000 in the next year, up from around 80,000 currently.
Over the next two years, it plans to have a network of over 200,000 such pharmacies servicing orders across 100 cities in India.
PharmEasy has the potential to fully utilize the digital commercial space within India and the world around as healthcare sector is striving to go the digital way.
