Medikabazaar, a business-to-business online marketplace for medical supplies, said Wednesday it has appointed Dinesh Lodha as the new group CEO.
Lodha, the former group CEO of healthcare products supplier Healthium Medtech, has over two decades of experience in the medtech industry and has served in leadership roles across various sectors, Medikabazaar said in a statement.
The appointment comes a month and a half after Medikabazaar co-founder Vivek Tiwari stepped down as the CEO following a PwC forensic audit report that revealed discrepancies in revenue recognition. Media reports at the time suggested that Medikabazaar might have overstated revenues from its medical equipment sales, its largest business segment. The alleged revenue manipulation could trigger clauses in the shareholder agreement, potentially reducing the co-founders’ equity stakes.
Before joining Medikabazaar, Lodha served as the group CEO for TI Medical, a joint venture between Tube Investments and PremjiInvest, the family office of Wipro Ltd’s Azim Premji. His experience also includes roles at GE Healthcare and Samsung, where he managed their South Asia business.
Lodha said that Medikabazaar was at an “inflection point” and that there were substantial opportunities across the verticals it operated in. “We will continue strengthening our collaborations with leading hospitals and healthcare professionals globally, serving as an extended procurement arm for all their medical procurement,” he said.
Medikabazaar’s platform connects hospitals and clinics with manufacturers, distributors, and resellers of medical devices and supplies. The platform offers over 400,000 products and serves more than 10,000 medical centres and 30,000 independent doctors and clinics. The company has expanded its global presence over the years, targeting markets such as Dubai, Singapore, and China, and is exploring growth through acquisitions.
The company was founded in April 2015 by Vivek Tiwari and Ketan Malkan. It last raised funding in April 2022, when it secured $65 million from investors. Private equity firm Lighthouse Funds led the round with a $30 million investment. Existing investors Creaegis, HealthQuad, Ackermans & van Haaren, British International Investment and KOIS Holdings also took part in the round. Previously, Medikabazaar raised $75 million in a Series C round in 2021 and $15 million in Series B financing in late 2019.
