Netmeds partnered with Reliance Retail in April⁠— now Mukesh Ambani reportedly wants a stake

• Reliance Industries is looking to buy a majority stake in the online pharmacy company Netmeds.
• The talks of stake purchase in Netmeds come at a time when Mukesh Ambani is doubling down on its e-commerce venture JioMart.
• In 2019, Reliance had acquired 82% stake in C-Square solutions, a Bengaluru-based startup which provides software solutions to pharma companies.

Mukesh Ambani is strengthening his e-commerce segment and is now reportedly looking to include e-pharmacy in his list of acquisitions. According to a TOI report, Reliance is looking to buy a majority stake in the online pharmacy company Netmeds.

Netmeds, which was facing challenges in delivery during lockdown, had already partnered with Reliance Retail to deliver medicines in April 2020.

The deal talks with Netmeds has come at a time when Reliance is doubling down on its e-commerce venture JioMart. While limited to grocery so far, JioMart had begun operations in Navi Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan.

With the Facebook investment, Reliance Retail and WhatsApp are now in a commercial partnership to accelerate JioMart’s growth. Through JioMart and WhatsApp, the entities will now help support consumer businesses.



The ten-year old Netmeds

Founded in 2010 by Pradeep Dadha, the startup has so far raised about $100 million from investors like Sistema Asia Fund, Cambodian investment company Tanncam, private equity firm OrbiMed and others. The company claims to deliver products to over 19,000 pin codes across the country and has a 4 million user base.

But this isn’t the first pharma related acquisition by Reliance. In 2019, Reliance had acquired 82% stake in C-Square solutions, a Bengaluru-based startup which provides software solutions to pharma companies.

Reliance has also been strengthening its position in e-commerce by acquiring companies like e-commerce platform Fynd, digital solutions startup NowFloats, grocery delivery startup Grab, and AI-based chat solutions company Haptik.

See Also:
Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft paid H1-B workers below market wages, says a new report
Both Silver Lake and Mukesh Ambani hope that Reliance Jio will replicate Alibaba's magic⁠ — and this time Zuckerberg will get a chunk