1mg Technologies, an online pharmacy store startup, has announced the acquisition of Varanasi-based startup named Dawailelo, for an undisclosed amount of sum.
The acquisition will help the startup in its efforts to push its services in the tier-II and tier-III cities. Prashant Tandon, CEO of 1mg Technologies, said,
We are very keen on building a pan-India presence rapidly. The team at Dawailelo has done a great job understanding the requirements of the customers and has created a unique model that has shown great promise for tier II and III cities.
Dawailelo was founded by Aditya Agrawal and Arpit Sarin in 2013. Last year, the company had raised Rs 35 lakh in seed funding from angel investors Madhu Gopinath, founder of Opus Group of Companies, and Naveen Nischal, director at Cygnus Medicare.
The startup claims that it is not only an online pharmacy but a technology-based facilitator in the healthcare space that helps individuals buy medicines, look for doctors and get lab tests done.
The company clarified that it is not an online pharmacy because online pharmacy retailing has become an issue in India, and the sector has come under the scanner of Drug Controller General of India.
1mg Technologies was founded out of Healthkart, a marketplace for nutrition products, in April 2015 to focus on online retail of medicines. It operates an online marketplace for medicines, besides facilitating doctor appointments and diagnostic test booking.
The company has also launched e-diagnostics, where users can request door-step sample collection for a number of tests offered by pathology labs. It has also launched e-consultations where patients can seek advice from doctors on the 1mg app.
1mg is backed by venture capital firms Sequoia Capital, Omidyar Network, and Maverick Capital Ventures. Recently, the company raised around ₹100 crore ($15 million) in its Series C round of funding. The company says that the funding will be used to launch predictive healthcare and corporate wellness products and to expand its operations.