Online health platform MediBuddy, operated by Phasorz Technology Pvt Ltd, on Tuesday said it has bagged $125 million in a Series C funding co-led by Quadria Capital and Lightrock India.
The fundraise was a mix of primary and secondary share sale, with less than 10% being secondary share sale, the company’s Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Satish Kannan told VCCircle.
Kannan said that the latest round also saw an exit of a few angel investors, without divulging any further details.
Meanwhile, other existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, India Life Sciences Fund III, Rebright Partners, JAFCO Asia, TEAMFund LP, FinSight Ventures, InnoVen Capital, Stride Ventures and Alteria Capital also participated in the funding.
The platform, however, did not disclose the valuation of the fundraise, but said that the company will invest in customer awareness, hiring, strengthening technology platforms and data science capabilities, clinical research and product development.
MediBuddy’s technology platform provides users with all-day access to specialist doctors via video calls, doorstep medicine delivery, at-home lab tests, mental health support, and other integrated healthcare services.
The company, which recently had onboarded Amitabh Bachchan as its official brand ambassador, claims to have catered to over three crore Indians.
MediBuddy also claims to have a pan-India network of 90,000 doctors and 7,000 hospitals along with 3,000 diagnostic centers, 2,500 pharmacies across the country.
The firm said its services cover 96% pincodes in India, adding that it is the largest provider of employee health and wellness services and claimed to cater to over 700 corporates and more than 50 lakh employees and their family members.
The company now plans to penetrate deeper into tier-2 and lower cities of India, at a time when non-urban parts of the country have seen massive digital adoption since the onset of the pandemic in 2020.
Currently, the company generates 40% revenue from tier-2 and lower cities, while about 60% comes from top tier cities, Kannan told VCCircle.
Kannan expects the mix to change in the near-term with tier-2 and lower cities contributing about 50% to MediBuddy’s total revenues. Kannan also said that with Bachchan as its brand ambassador, the company will be able to penetrate deeper as Bachchan is a well-known face even in smaller towns of the country.
“Our presence in the top cities like Mumbai, Delhi Hyderabad, Bangalore among others is strong. Hindi-speaking smaller towns in states like Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, typically called ‘Bimaru states,’ is where our focus is and we see a lot of growth coming from there. These states, which are the heart of India, generally have poor health infrastructure and have to travel to bigger cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai for medical reasons,” said Kannan.
‘Bimaru’ is an acronym for Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, coined in the early 1980s by demographer Ashish Bose to describe northern states that contributed significantly to India’s population explosion.
MediBuddy was founded in 2015 by Kannan and Enbasekar Dinadayalane, both IIT Madras alumni. Kannan hinted that the company may look for an initial public offering (IPO) in the next three years, without giving any more details
MediBuddy in June 2020, had merged its health business with Doctor consultation platform DocsApp, after which they named the combined entity as Phasorz Technologies Pvt Ltd changing from Medi Assist Healthcare Services Private Limited.
Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to MediBuddy on this transaction.