IntelliHealth Solutions Pvt. Ltd which operates Truemeds Tuesday said it has raised $22 million (around Rs 167.2 crore) in a Series B funding round led by private equity fund Westbridge Capital.
The fresh funds will be used to accelerate growth in the untapped domestic market and expand its coverage across the country, the statement said.
“India is one of the very few markets where we have pseudo-categorisation of medicines in branded and generic-generic to create different price tiers between them. 95% of the drugs sold in India are off-patent (thus technically generics). There is absolutely no difference in the scientific composition of generics and branded drugs,” said Akshat Nayyar, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Truemeds.
Founded by ex-Abbott executives, Akshat Nayyar and Kunal Wani, Truemeds is a telehealth platform that recommends alternate brands of medicines to patients along with free delivery. The company claims to save 47% on its users’ monthly medicine bills by using a proprietary recommendation engine and free consultation from its doctors, which can go to as high as 70%.
The telehealth company has raised a significantly higher amount in Series B than it did in its Series A round ($5 million) in 2021. The Series B round also saw participation from existing investors including InfoEdge Ventures, Asha Impact and the Indian Angel Network Fund (IAN), who led the Series A round.
Westbridge Capital, the private equity company that led the Series B round for Truemeds has investments of over $5.6 billion in more than 120 countries. It focuses primarily on investing in India or south Asia. On April 6, the company backed flexible workspace provider IndiQube in a $30 million Series B fund raising.
In May 2020, the company raised $487,000 as a part of its seed funding round led by InfoEdge Ventures.
Amit Behl, Partner, InfoEdge Ventures added, “Truemeds is carving out a good place for itself in the Indian pharma market with its simple but powerful proposition of reducing costs of medical bills. Seldom do we witness an e-commerce biz model operating with viable economics while growing rapidly and delivering attractive savings for customers. Execution by the team has been very impressive and with this fundraise they have the necessary capital to put in the building blocks required for rapid, long term and sustainable growth.”