Medlife, a Bangaluru-based online pharmacy eCommerce platform, is reportedly planning to scale up its operations, and is keen on investing around Rs 192 crore ($30 million) for doing so.
As a part of its aggressive expansion strategy, the company is planning to scale up its e-pharmacy business to more than 100 cities across the country by the year 2018.
Along with that, the company is also eyeing to strengthen its technology capabilities and enter into new but related verticals such as diagnostics and e-consultation.
Commenting on the development, Tushar Kumar, CEO, Medlife said,
Online pharmacy is still a nascent business but is now on a very strong footing since regulatory hurdles are expected to resolve soon taking into consideration the government’s push for campaigns like Digital India and Startup India. We are looking to target tier II and tier-III cities in India.
Medlife claims to have a positive gross margin and says that it is operational in 34 cities across India. The app-based medicine delivery platform uploads 10,000 prescriptions and executes over 4,000 shipments on a daily basis, as per the company.
Since quite some time, many startups have come up in the online pharmacy space, and have managed to get attention of investors.
Startups such as 1mg Technologies and Netmeds are dominating the online pharmacy segment in India. There are many other similar startups, such as PharmEasy, Medlife, among others, who are trying to make their presence in the market.
While the segment was hot in the 2015, the investment in this space has lowered since 2016, thanks to the atmosphere of regulatory uncertainties. But, companies and investors are now hoping to clear out those uncertainties soon.
The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) had earlier directed state authorities to put a strict vigil on online sales of medicines and take action against e-pharmacies that violate the provisions of the Drug and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
In May last year, there was a crackdown on five online portals by state regulators, which created confusion on whether online sales of medicines were permitted under the Act, making investors wary.