Flipkart In Talks To Acquire Bengaluru-based E-pharma Player Pharmallama

Online retailer Flipkart is in talks to acquire stake in Bengaluru-based Pharmallama, according to a report by Mint.

Pharmallama is run by Mera Dawai Pvt. Ltd. The deal may result in Flipkart gaining access to technologies of the platform, the report added.

Pharmallama handles the pre-sorting of drug prescriptions, over-the-counter (OTC) medications, and vitamins into personalised pockets, organised by date and time.

Pharmallama was launched in June 2020 by Achintya Dayal, Arjun Raghunandan, and Deepesh Rajpal. Dayal and Raghunandan also run Kiplist, a travel tech startup that builds software-as-a-service (SaaS) tools, that serve the hospitality industry. Rajpal has also been a founding member of two other health-tech platforms in the past, namely MED365 and Lifcare, the report said.

In the online pharmacy space, Pharmallama competes with bigger rivals such as Tata 1mg, Pharmeasy, Reliance-owned Netmeds, Apollo Pharmacy, and Amazon, among others.

The development is significant as PharmEasy's parent, API Holdings Ltd called off its initial public offering (IPO) in August last year. It cited market conditions and strategic considerations for stepping back from the IPO. Instead, it secured debt funding from EvolutionX Debt Capital, the report said.

In a similar exercise last year, Tata 1MG raised $40 million in a funding round led by its majority stakeholder Tata Digital Ltd at a unicorn valuation, according to the newspaper.

In addition to this, Flipkart is also foraying into the healthcare segment by acquiring a stake in SastaSundar Marketplace Ltd, which owns and operates SastaSundar.com, in November 2021, the report said.

Flipkart had also invested in the diabetes management platform BeatO last year, along with a clutch of other investors. It invested $500,000 in each of the six ventures. The investment was part of the company's accelerator programme, Flipkart Leap Ahead, which aims to provide early-stage startups with mentorship and guidance to scale and build disruptive innovations.