BackSAIF, Nexus, others invest $11 million in LifCare
LifCare, which is owned and operated by Corner Store Technologies Pvt. Ltd, has so far raised $17 million, including the $5 million in Series A money in October 2016
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New Delhi: Subscription-based online pharmacy LifCare has raised $11 million in a Series B round led by existing investors SAIF Partners and Nexus Venture Partners, said a senior company executive on Tuesday. New investor IL&FS Investment Managers also participated in this round.
The Jaipur-headquartered start-up, which is owned and operated by Corner Store Technologies Pvt. Ltd, has so far raised $17 million, including the $5 million in Series A money in October 2016.
It also counts angel investors Rajul Garg; Rishi Mandawat, vice-president of Bain Capital Private Equity; Amitabh Mall, senior partner and managing director at Boston Consulting Group; Karan Bhagat, founder and MD of IIFL Holdings Ltd; and Alok Mittal, the former managing director of venture capital firm Canaan Partners; as its investors.
The healthcare start-up, which focuses on chronic medicines, plans to utilize the capital to expand its footprint, besides upgrading its technology and data science infrastructure to provide better experience and adding service layers for chronic patients.
“The team (LifCare) has executed brilliantly over the past two years and we expect to see strong growth in the coming years," said Sandeep Singhal, managing director and co-founder, Nexus Venture Partners.
LifCare runs an on-call, subscription-based delivery service for prescription drugs after the required verifications by a pharmacist. According to Krishna Killa, founder and chief executive, LifCare, the start-up is now planning to provide end-to-end services in chronic disease management through medical consultancy, lifestyle management and timely reminders, among others.
“The plan is to add more geographical (areas) in north, central and west India. We will continue to focus on the north. We are also looking to provide full-service disease management to our customers because a lot of them suffer from diabetes, hyper-tension through lifestyle management and doctor consultancy," Killa said over the telephone.
The chronic illness market is a $10 billion segment in India, while the nascent online segment is at a fraction, said Villa. LifCare competes with the likes of Netmeds, 1Mg and Zigy.
Launched in 2015, it claims to have over 1.5 lakh active subscribers (reorders every 30-60 days) and is present in Jaipur, Delhi, Lucknow, Kanpur and Udaipur, among others.
Founded by Killa, a former associate at Bain Capital PE, and Rohit Mohta, a former executive of Cipla Ltd, LifeCare currently employs 500 people compared to 45 in 2016.
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