PharmEasy buys Medlife, becomes largest pharmacy

In the biggest consolidation in the domestic on-line pharmacy sector, unicorn PharmEasy has acquired Medlife for an undisclosed amount.

According to the deal, Medlife customers will emerge as Pharmeasy customers with Medlife discontinuing operations from now on. The consolidated entity will be serving around two million customers every month, stated the company.

“This acquisition significantly strengthens our position in the healthcare industry, and in addition helps us in offering first-class healthcare to more number of Indian households. Moving forward, we aim to be of even higher service to the people,” stated Dhaval Shah, co-founder of PharmEasy, in a publish on LinkedIn.

In a blog post, Pharmeasy stated that Medlife would discontinue its operations and would be merged with its own platform from May 25. Customers and retail companions of Medlife would be introduced onto the Pharmeasy platform, the company added.

“Medlife customers simply need to login to the PharmEasy app to begin using their Medlife account via the same mobile number. All their digitised prescriptions and saved addresses dating lower back to a yr will be available on the PharmEasy app,” he added. Apart from the users, PharmEasy will additionally be onboarding Medlife’s retail partners.

Business Standard had previously reported that the deal values the stake of Medlife shareholders at about $200-250 million. Last month, PharmEasy grew to become the country’s first epharmacy company to enter the unicorn club after raising a $323 million round from API Holdings, Prosus Ventures and TPG Growth, at a valuation of $1.5 billion.

The Indian e-health region which is anticipated to become a $16 billion opportunity by FY25, growing from $1.2 billion has considered a lot of action lately with bigwigs such as Tatas, Amazon and Reliance making inroads in the segment. It is expected to touch 57 million households, driven through positive reception from both consumers and providers along with supportive authorities regulations and investments, in accordance to Redseer.

According to reports, while the Tata Group has signed a definitive agreement with 1mg to purchase almost a 65 per cent stake in the startup, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd has acquired a 60 per cent stake in on-line pharmacy Netmeds for Rs 620 crore. E-commerce giant Amazon too had forayed into the online medication segment and launched Amazon Pharmacy which allows customers to order prescription-based medicine in addition to over-the-counter medicines, primary fitness devices and Ayurveda medication from licensed sellers.