Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart to get online pharmacy brand to enter
healthcare industry
Walmart-backed
Flipkart
is forcing SastaSundar, an online pharmacy startup, to enter the
healthcare sector in India as the battle for e-commerce intensifies in the
world's second largest online marketplace.
Flipkart
said it had signed definitive agreements to acquire a controlling stake in
SastaSundar, but did not disclose the size of the agreement. The eight-year-old
Sander Sundar was last valued at $ 125-125 million in a 2019 funding round. The
Kolkata-based startup, which operates more than 490 pharmacies, raised $ 48.2
million in financial travel expenses for multiple trips in advance. According
to research company Tracxn. …
India's leading e-commerce platform
worth over $ 37 billion has announced that its vertical healthcare platform
will be called Flipkart Health +. Flipkart's planned transition to healthcare
comes at a time when the market is seeing both stability and aggressive
investment.
Amazon India,
Flipkart's biggest competitor in India, started selling drugs in its market
last year. Reliance Retail, India's largest retailer, bought the parent company
of online pharmacy Netmeds last year. Collective competitor, Tata Digital,
bought an online 1mg drug store in June.
Farm Easy, a well-known healthcare startup in the
market, launched an initial public offering of $ 84.843 million earlier
this month.
Bernstein analysts said in a report earlier this year
that e-pharmacies now account for less than 5% of the pharmaceutical market and
that its “growing awareness, digital access and online transactions in other
categories. There is a lot of room for improvement with this structure. “He
added: “Despite low penetration, there was a significant level of strength
among departing players and M&A activities.”
Ravi Kant Sharma, Founder and CEO of Sasta Sundar,
said taking over Flipkart was the fledgling company's mission to
"bring affordable healthcare to all Indians in an easy way."
“The Indian Internet Consumer Ecosystem is
growing rapidly as consumers realize the possibilities and convenience that can
digitally adapt them to their lives. At the same time, the available healthcare
and secondary services are enormous. Opportunity and demand,”said Ravi Eyre,
Senior Vice President, Flipkart and the chief business officer in a statement.
“We are thrilled to enter this space through our
investment in SastaSundar.com, a company that has become a trusted partner to
millions of customers through real products, technology platforms and vast
networks.” Collaboration between Flipkart Group and SatsaSundar, together with
our commitment to prioritizing the needs of our clients, has helped us develop
and transform online healthcare in India. Everything is going well.
"