PMHLC unveils zigy.com to link consumers with chemists
The firm is looking to raise $10-12 million in a Series A funding round by the end of the year, says promoter Phaneesh Murthy
Phaneesh Murthy-promoted PM Health and Life Care (PMHLC) on Monday launched Zigy.com, a marketplace that aims to connect consumers with chemists and provides a patient-controlled electronic health record system.
A former director of Infosys Ltd and chief executive of iGate Corp., Murthy has so far raised $5 million in seed funding.
He said the firm is looking to raise $10-12 million in a Series A round by the end of the year.
Zigy will connect consumers who need healthcare products and services with doctors, clinics, hospitals, pharmacies, among other related services.
Services such as uploading scanned medical histories of consumers will be free but the firm will charge a commission from the chemist and a nominal fee from customers over a certain limit of medicines ordered.
The Zigy launch comes at a time when there is increasing scrutiny of the marketplace model being used for sale of prescription medicines.
Snapdeal was recently pulled up by the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration for selling prescription drugs online.
Murthy said Zigy will do due diligence, including licence verification, before listing a chemist.
“With our business model which is a win-win for each stakeholder in the ecosystem, we anticipate achieving one million transactions within the first 12 months of our operations," Hemant Bhardwaj, managing director, chief executive and co-founder of PMHLC, said.
The company said it would, over time, bring doctors on its platform to fill in prescription details directly. Its patient-controlled health record feature allows the consumer to store previous medical records of up to six family members on Zigy’s cloud to allow better access to patient history. The pre-qualified chemists will initially serve customers in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi and Mumbai. The company plans to reach 50 cities within 18 months.
The Indian healthcare segment is estimated to grow to $280 billion by 2020.
Salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Sons Ltd has announced its intention to enter the digital healthcare business earlier this year.
Online healthcare service provider Practo raised $90 million this month, taking the total amount raised till date to over $120 million, an indication of the attractiveness of this segment for firms and investors.
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