For the third consecutive day, a new unicorn is born from India as PharmEasy joins the billion dollar club

• PharmEasy’s funding news comes in right after social e-commerce startup Meesho and credit card payment rewards company CRED announced their investments and big valuations.
• PharmEasy’s parent company API Holdings has raised $350 million from Prosus Ventures, TPG Growth.
• The startup, which was founded in 2014, recently acquired Medlife.

It’s turning out to be an exciting week for tech startups in India, and mind you - there are three more days to go. For the third consecutive day, a new unicorn is reported from India as PharmEasy, the online pharmacy delivery startup, raised new funds at a billion dollar valuation.

PharmEasy’s funding news comes in right after social e-commerce startup Meesho and credit card payment rewards company CRED announced their fundraises and big valuations.

Date	Startup	Valuation
Monday, April 5	Meesho	$2.1 billion
Tuesday, April 6	CRED	$2.2 billion
Wednesday, April 7	PharmEasy	$1.5 billion

*Reported valuation for PharmEasy

PharmEasy’s parent company API Holdings has raised $350 million from new investors Prosus Ventures and TPG Growth. Its existing investors Temasek, CDPQ, LGT Lightrock, Eight Roads and Think Investments, too, participated in the round. According to an ET report, the round would also have secondary transactions.

“I am particularly proud that we have been able to not only provide consumers with much faster and easier access to the healthcare products and services they need, but that we have been able to do so by empowering and digitising 60,000 small pharmacy stores that provide such an essential service to the Indian public,” said Siddharth Shah, chief executive officer of API Holdings.

With the latest funding, the company aims to reach to over 100,000 pharmacies in the next 12 months.

The online pharmacy’s funding comes at a time when the space is heating up with the bigwigs entering the arena. Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance had recently acquired NetMeds, Amazon had launched its own pharmacy vertical, while Tata Group is in talks to acquire 1mg.

Pharmeasy, too, has not been lagging behind in the acquisition race. The startup, which was founded in 2014, acquired Medlife in March 2021. Ananth Narayanan, the chief executive of Medlife, who formerly was at the helm of fashion e-commerce portal Myntra, took to LinkedIn to announce the news.

“Late 2020, Prashant and I decided to merge Medlife with API which would help create the largest e-heath player in the market. The API team has a terrific track record of growth, with a great list of investors and terrific founders. The overlap in customers was low. Joining hands could lead to a lot more capital coming into the market leader who could then help build out the industry,” he wrote.

SEE ALSO:
Facebook-backed Meesho raises $300 million from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 – valuation jumps to over $2 billion