An IBEF research study claims that the total medicines traded annually in India are worth around $20 billion. Of which 90% is run by standalone pharmacies. Such locally-run pharmacies dominate the non-metro cities of India and have a strong presence and footfall in that area. Yet they face huge gaps due to the fragmented supply chain.
Aastha Dusad, Rahul Gautam and Rohit Bafna realised that it takes a lot of time to deliver essential life-saving medicines to these shops. They decided to solve this issue by launching MEDdelivery. MEDdelivery is a B2B phama-tech startup that facilitates buying and selling between pharmacy retailers and stockers. They host a catalogue with over 1 million SKUs coming from 10,000+ brands.
MEDdelivery acts as a simple and single value chain between big pharmacy companies, stockists and local medical shops. It helps local medical shops procure supplies from hyperlocal wholesale markets effectively. This also helps them deliver medicines time effectively.
The 3 founders come from different backgrounds within the pharma supply chain, including technology, operations and business. Their venture operates in 8 cities in Rajasthan, including Jaipur, Bikaner, Ajmer, Jodhpur, Indore, Chaksu, and other Tier-III and IV cities. They also host a wide network of around 3000 retailers. Their data-driven system has helped increase the fulfilment rates to reach 100%. They have made the daily procurements process from hyperlocal wholesale markets simple and effective.
They have seen transactions worth Rs 40 crore with 80% retreat cohorts in the last few years. They were planning to close more than Rs 100 crore in transactions in the last fiscal year. This was possible despite competition from other B2B pharma marketplaces like Retailio, Biddano, and Saveo among many others.
The startup has received $1 million in funds from FAAD Network, Auxano Entrepreneur Trust, Lets Venture, Kisho Capital, Venture Garage, Sukhbir Singh and other angel investors. Will MEDdelivery’s effort be able to empower the standalone pharmacies in India’s $42 billion domestic pharmaceutical market?