PharmEasy gets $300 mn funding; to use it for Thyrocare deal

PharmEasy, which acquired diagnostic chain Thyrocare, has raised $300 million from its existing investors. The funding will be used for the ongoing acquisition process of Thyrocare. Once the deal is complete the online pharmacy will aim to list the company on the Indian bourses.

Kotak Group’s private equity arm joined in this round of funding along with US private equity major TPG, Singapore’s Temasek, Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital, Prosus (previously Naspers) and Think Investments, according to a report in The Economic Times.

Chief Executive of PharmEasy parent API Holdings Siddharth Shah led the negotiations for Thyrocare acquisition. He said that all options are being considered for the proposed listing but will be finalised only once the Thyrocare deal is officially closed. JM Financial and Kotak Investment Banking are expected to be working with the company for the IPO. The same entities were the advisers for the Thyrocare deal.

Founded by Shah, Dharmil Sheth, Dhaval Shah, Harsh Parekh and Hardik Dedhia in 2015, PharmEasy is currently valued at $4 billion.

US investment firm Tiger Global has already backed the online pharmacy and is in further talks to pump in more capital. Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital had picked a minority stake in API Holdings earlier this month, valuing the company at $1.8 billion. A Velumani, Thyrocare promoter invested Rs 1,500 crore to pick up a 5 per cent stake in the firm as part of the acquisition, valuing the e-pharmacy at $4 billion.

These developments come at a time when the e-pharmacy space moved into the focus of the big leagues. Tata Group recently acquired PharmEasy rival 1mg, while Reliance Industries had picked a 60 per cent stake in Netmeds in 2020.

Also read: PharmEasy to acquire 66% stake in Thyrocare for Rs 4,546 crore