Medikabazaar, a business-to-business (B2B) online marketplace for medical supplies, has raised Rs 112 crore ($15 million) in its Series B round of funding from a clutch of new and existing investors.
New investors such as Belgium-based diversified group Ackermans & van Haaren and Japan’s Toppan Printing Co. Ltd struck their debut investments in the country through this transaction, Medikabazaar said in a statement.
Existing investors that participated in the funding round include Delhi-based VC firm HealthQuad, Belgium-based Kois Invest, Japan’s Rebright Partners and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance’s VC arm.
The company will use the funds for enhancing its technological capabilities, supply chain infrastructure, and team strength, the statement added. The firm currently focuses on optimising its fulfillment capabilities for better delivery management, especially across Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, including rural areas.
Vivek Tiwari, chief executive officer at Medikabazaar, said the firm currently has 17 fulfillment centres across India, and the latest investment will help the company to grow centers by establishing a larger number of distribution hubs.
Charles-Antoine Janssen, chief investment officer at HealthQuad, said Medikabazaar has created India’s largest tech-enabled B2B medical supplies platform providing a transparent and efficient supply chain management solution.
Medikabazaar, operated by Boston Ivy Healthcare Solutions Pvt. Ltd, was started in April 2015 by Vivek Tiwari and Ketan Malkan. Its B2B e-commerce marketplace lets customers to buy medical devices and hospital supplies directly. It connects hospitals and clinics with manufacturers, distributors, and re-sellers of equipment and consumables.
The company's platform list the offerings under broad categories such as medical equipment, medical devices, consumables, disposables, and hospital furniture. It further plans to diversify into other categories such as devices for vascular surgery, ENT, laser devices for varicose veins, gynecology, interventional radiology, and OT environment safety.
Earlier this year, the company said it aimed to raise Rs 200 crore in this round.
The firm posted net sales of Rs 20 crore during fiscal year 2017-18 as against Rs 7.5 crore a year before, as per VCCEdge, the financial data platform of VCCircle.
Medikabazaar had raised around $1 million in a pre-Series A round from Rebright and other investors. In October last year, it secured $5 million in a Series A round led by healthcare-focussed venture capital firm Healthquad Advisors.
Medikabazaar is one of a large number of health-tech ventures that have raised funding from investors in recent years. Another company in the segment where Medikabazaar operates is DrStore, which operates an eponymous B2B marketplace for medical supplies.
Mumbai-based DrStore raised pre-Series A funding from Equanimity Ventures in December last year.
