B2B e-commerce pharmacy platform Saveo has got a seed funding boost of $4 Mn from Matrix Partners India, RTP Global and other investors including incubate Fund and India Quotient. Several high-profile angel investors including Cred’s Kunal Shah also participated in the seed funding round. Kunal Shah was also recently in news for investing an undisclosed amount in Carl Pei’s new venture.
This is Saveo’s second seed funding round in less than a year. In March 2020, the Bengaluru based startup had raised INR 2 Cr from India Quotient and First Cheque.
The company stated that it will use the funds to penetrate further in the existing territories and also to expand to newer territories while ramping up its full-stack tech platform. Currently, the company’s presence is majorly restricted to Karnataka state.
About Saveo
Saveo is essentially a B2B e-commerce platform for pharmacy companies. The platform provides single point of procurement for all types of medicines hailing from all types of categories. By doing so, it is trying to bring a sense of uniformity and standardization in an industry that has traditionally been opaque and disorganized. Above all, it is trying to solve many incremental pain-points in the Pharma industry including inventory issues, supply chain issues, lack of standardization in margins so and so forth. The startup is a brainchild of IIT alumni Amit Kumar, Anurag Savarnya, Shivansh Shrivastava and Vivek Jaiswal.
Who are Saveo’s competitors?
Although Saveo competes with quite a few startups but it’s most prominent competitor is Pune based Pharmarck. According to reports, Pharmarack is currently in talks with investors to raise nearly $13.7 Mn by end of next month. The Pune based startup had already raised $3 Mn in a series A round in September, 2019.
How is E-Pharmacy Industry stacked up?
What makes the pharmacy industry ripe for disruption is the low penetration of digital technology in the industry. There is a general feeling within the VC community that India’s pharmacy industry is ready to ride the digital wave and benefit massively from the digital transformation. According to KPMG’s recent report, India’s pharmacy is one of the most opaque industries out there, with nearly 90% of medicines being delivered with no accurate prescription validation mechanism.
On the B2C front, the E-Pharmacy industry has already witnessed massive consolidation with Reliance Retail acquiring Netmeds for INR 620 Cr last year. This consolidation process can move to the next level, with grapevines claiming that Tata’s are closing in to acquire online pharmacy player 1 Mg.
