API Holdings, the parent of India’s largest online pharmacy chain PharmEasy, on Monday said it has appointed 5 independent directors to its board.
With the new appointments, API Holdings’ board strength now stands at 12 directors.
“The fresh appointments bring a great amount of cognitive diversity to the board, with luminaries from the world of public service, technology, pharma, medical fraternity, and the consumer sector,” the company said in a statement.
The new appointments to the board include Vineeta Rai, IAS (Retd) officer who was the ex-revenue secretary of India; Subramanian Somasundaram, who recently retired as the CFO of Titan Company Ltd; Ramakant Sharma, founder and COO of Livspace; Dr. Jaydeep Tank, a gynecologist based in Mumbai and the secretary-general, FOGSI; Deepak Vaidya, who has decades of experience in the field of pharmaceuticals, micro-finance, healthcare and private equity.
VCCircle had reported last month that API Holdings, which bought diagnostic chain Thyrocare in June, aims to raise a billion dollars at a valuation of $9 billion in its initial public offering (IPO) later this year.
PharmEasy had raised $350 million (about Rs 2,566 crore) from Prosus Ventures, TPG Growth, and others as part of its Series E funding round.
The company was founded in 2015 by Dharmil Sheth and Dhaval Shah as a subsidiary of Ascent Health.
It raised around $5 million in its Series A funding round in 2016 from Ascent Health, Bessemer Venture Partners, Orios Venture Partners, and other investors.
“We have luminaries from the field of public service, a leading doctor, a tech wizard & angel investor, a pharma veteran, and someone who has seen consumer business very closely.
This diversity will help us bring a paradigm shift with the rapid digitisation of healthcare and enable across the board doctor consultation, diagnostics labs and the supply chain for delivering medicines,” Siddharth Shah, co-founder and CEO, API Holdings, said.