HYDERABAD BASED STARTUP RAISES 1.5M IN SEED ROUND

The sacrifice and farsightedness of one man just raised 1.5 million dollars for bringing out improvements in the healthcare scenario in India! MetroMedi, a Hyderabad-based online pharmacy and e-health store, said it has raised $1.5 million in seed round from TK GP Rao, a high networth individual, who is also the founder of the TMT Group of industries.

The startup is also in talks with various funds to raise Series A funding to move closer towards fulfilling its vision of delivering 100 percent genuine medicines to the consumers’ doorstep.

Dilip C Byra, a serial entrepreneur, resigned from civil services at the Ministry of Defence and let go of the security and comfort of his highly established career,  to pursue his passion of creating employment and creating an impact in the society. He founded Vensoft India Pvt Ltd in 1998, which is into development, consulting, and content writing. During his entrepreneurial journey, he realised the need for quality healthcare, and established Value Pharma Retail in 2010.

In 2018, with the increasing penetration of Reliance Jio, smartphones, and WhatsApp into the ordinary Indian household, Dilip started MetroMedi, an interface to help people monitor and track all their medical requirements seamlessly and effortlessly. The way MetroMedi works is simple – patients share their prescriptions through WhatsApp, and MetroMedi staff then delivers the medication to them on a recurring cycle. 

The platform bundles all health related solutions and assists in the improvement of the healthcare segment by their health assistants programme, in which personalised assistance is given for every 1,000 customers,  and to create employment as well, along with health insurance and health credit. This is a very unique initiative ,  and the only platform where health, technology, and fintech is combined together as a unified health platform using ancient wisdom and modern science together in the fast-growing Indian ecommerce market.

MetroMedi initially started delivering medicines in Hyderabad. It then expanded to six more cities including Bengaluru, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Guntur, and Rajahmundry – that are a mix of Tier-I, Tier-II, and Tier-III cities. So far, MetroMedi claims to have fulfilled more than 100,000 orders with a 99 percent prescription fill rate.

Apart from delivering medicines, the platform also helps patients set a reminder to automatically refill medicines, recommends health foods, and educates users with health tips.

Currently, brick and mortar pharmacies are fulfilling only 60 percent of the orders, and most importantly there are 20 percent counterfeit medicines in the Indian market. MetroMedi delivers genuine medicines and attempts to solve the problem of unavailability and proliferation of counterfeit drugs, both of which generate severe medical and even humanitarian crises.

On its mission to become a unified health platform, MetroMedi has also started offering diagnostics by partnering with DoctorC.

MetroMedi is currently working on a set of complex problems and committed to make quality healthcare accessible and affordable. First, the company wants to offer a wide range of quality nutritional products and expand these offerings to 10 cities in the next ten months. Second, the firm is working on new initiatives to improve the accessibility of healthcare in Tier-III and Tier-IV cities by working with pharmacists and doctors. Third, the team is working with banks and financial institutions to offer health credits and affordable insurance. 

According to Google trends 2018, India is searching for ‘online medicine apps’ more than any other country. The Indian healthcare sector is expected to reach $280 billion by 2020, reports IBEF. It is estimated that by 2025, ePharmacy in India may grow up to 30-35 percent of the total size. Other similar companies do exist, such as Practo and NetMeds. This is a market with immense potential, not just in economic terms but also in terms of propagating conscious capitalism and making positive impacts on society. Under these circumstances, MetroMedi is all set to stand out as a company full of innovative solutions to solve the serious yet static problem of inadequate healthcare in society.

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