After a pandemic-induced high that characterized a majority of the past two years, healthtech players are struggling to adjust in the post-COVID 19 era. The same period witnessed the demand for online pharmacies, telemedicine, and at-home diagnostics start to decrease with the easing of restrictions. Add to this the tough market conditions and funding crunch that has prevailed for a good part of the year, and the fallout is as expected. However, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going, and Tata 1mg has proven that.
At a time when layoffs are becoming commonplace, businesses are struggling to stay afloat, and late-stage funding has dried up, the Tata Group-owned online pharmacy has just turned India’s 107th unicorn.
1mg breached the $1 billion barrier to enter the unicorn club with a fresh infusion of about $40 million, led by Tata Digital, which put in $32 million. This is also the first major infusion by Tata Digital in Tata 1mg in FY23.
The round also included the participation of KWE Beteiligungen AG, HBM Healthcare Investments, and others. Regulatory filings show that Tata 1mg had allotted 30,992 equity shares at a price of ₹1,03,047 per share.
According to sources, this funding happened at a “significant premium,” and Tata 1mg will aim to raise a bigger amount of capital later this year or in 2023.
The fresh bout takes the total amount of funding raised by the online pharmacy to $230.8 million across 16 rounds, putting its valuation at $1.25 billion. The startup’s entry to the unicorn club is a notable one, and it is not just because of the tough market conditions and cooling investor interest this year.
The seven-year-old Tata 1mg became the third unicorn startup owned by Tata Digital, the other two being Big Basket and CultFit. The fresh bout of funding also made it the latest and 21st Indian startup to enter the unicorn club this year, and the first since Shiprocket became a unicorn last month. It is also the fifth healthtech unicorn to hail from India, after PharmEasy, Innovaccer, Curefit, and Pristyn Care.
This funding will help boost its current business, which consists of offering healthcare services like doorstep delivery of medicines, health and wellness products, teleconsultation and diagnostics. Founded by Prashant Tandon, Gaurav Aggarwal and Vikas Chauhan, the startup claims to deliver 31 million orders a month across 20,000 pin codes in the country.
