In a bid to fill the gap between the consumers and the medicines, an online pharmacy and e-health store MetroMedi, has secured $1.5 million (approx ₹10 crore) in seed round from TK GP Rao, founder at TMT Group of Industries, cited Yourstory.
Dilip C Byra, Founder and CEO, MetroMedi, said, “We bundle all health related solutions and assist to improve healthcare segment by our health assistants programme, where personalised assistance is given for every 1,000 customers and to create employment as well, along with health insurance and health credit.”
MetroMedi was founded by Dilip C Byra in 2018. The medium was started with a mission to deliver 100 percent genuine medicines to the consumers’ doorstep. The way MetroMedi works is simple, patients share their prescriptions through WhatsApp, and MetroMedi staff then delivers the medication to them on a recurring cycle.
“This is very unique and the only platform where health, technology, and fintech bundles together as a unified health platform using ancient wisdom and modern science together in the fast-growing Indian ecommerce market,” Byra added.
Currently, MetroMedi opperates in over six cities including Bengaluru, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Guntur, and Rajahmundry that are a mix of Tier-I, Tier-II, and Tier-III cities. So far, MetroMedi claims to have fulfilled more than 100,000 orders with a 99 percent prescription fill rate.
The company MetroMedi said, besides delivering medicines, the platform helps patients set a reminder to automatically refill medicines, recommends health foods, and also educates users with health tips.
Manikanta Byra, COO of MetroMedi said, “As of today, MetroMedi fulfills nearly 1000 orders a day, acquires customers at 75 percent less cost than its competitors, has 60 percent monthly repeat customers and is growing at 25 percent month-on-month.”
It has also developed a personal health assistant programme, where a trained health professional is assigned for every 1,000 customers to support their healthcare needs.
MetroMedi is presently, working on a set of complex problems and committed to make quality healthcare accessible and affordable.
The company wants to offer a wide range of quality nutritional products and expand these offerings to 10 cities in the next ten months. It is also working on new initiatives to improve the accessibility of healthcare in Tier-III and Tier-IV cities by working with pharmacists and doctors. It also works with banks and financial institutions to offer health credits and affordable insurance.
Furthermore, according to Google trends 2018, India is searching for ‘online medicine apps’ more than any other country.
Some of the significant players operating in the similar space are Practo, 1MG, NetMeds, and Pharmeasy among others.