Omidyar and Sequoia among returnees for Indian e-pharmacy’s $15m series C

Photo credit: areeya / 123RF Stock Photo.

Indian e-pharmacy 1mg has just closed its series C funding round, raising US$15 million from existing backers including HBM Healthcare Investments, Maverick Capital Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Omidyar Network, and Kae Capital.

HBM CEO Andreas Wicki said in a press release that his firm decided to lead the round to double-down on its May 2016 post-series B investment in 1mg, “pre-empting any need for the company to seek external capital and keeping the focus on continued growth.”

Maverick had taken the lead in 1mg’s April 2016 series B round, which netted it another US$15 million.

1mg was spun-out of HealthKart, an online portal for health, dietary, and bodybuilding supplements, in April 2015. It serves both as a marketplace and an information source.

Users can order drugs and book diagnostic tests, and also find out about similar products offered by different providers. In some cases, they may be able to save money by switching brands. The startup’s CEO and co-founder Prashant Tandon says its goal is to make healthcare “transparent, understandable, accessible, and affordable for consumers.”

In June 2015, 1mg moved into the alternative medicine space by acquiring Homeobuy.com, an online portal for buying homeopathic remedies. It further scaled up last year with the acquisition of Medd, a marketplace for booking diagnostic lab tests and similar procedures.

1mg is just one of several Indian startups offering e-pharmacy services and home delivery of medicines. MChemist, BookMeds, and Netmeds – which acquired Pluss, another player in this space, in November 2016 – are among its key competitors.

As the segment grows increasingly crowded, some startups have sought to pivot into adjacent areas – like 1mg with its lab test aggregation service, and Just Relief’s branch into offering a health management platform.