Exclusive: Online pharmacy startup Aermed raises angel funding

Aermed, a full-service pharmacy and lab aggregator with a focus on chronic patients, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding in a round led by Hitesh Windlass, CEO of Windlas Healthcare.

Other investors who participated in the round included angels from a Boston-based private equity firm and a New York-based global investment bank.

Aermed will use the funds for customer acquisition and ramping up technology team. It will also use the money for back-end development by setting up additional hubs for fulfillment and augmenting logistics infrastructure.

The company, run by HX Wellness Pvt. Ltd, claims to have enrolled around 2,500 customers on subscription, and a repeat user rate of 80%.

Aermed allows customers to place orders through the website, the app, over phone or also through WhatsApp. It also helps them store and track their medical records.

The startup was launched in January this year by IIT Delhi, IIM Calcutta alumni Naishadh Sutaria and Aayush Jindal, both former Consultants at Bain & Co.; Nandit Pathak from Unilever and Ashish Prakash from Sentio.

"The market for chronic medicines is $10 billion and growing at a compound annual rate of 15-17%. Online pharmacy, by our estimate, is less than 1% of the market in even urban markets, and has tremendous headroom for growth," said Sutaria.

Medicine delivery startups have attracted a lot of investor interest lately.

Two weeks ago, mobile-based healthtech startup Medzin secured angel funding from AM Sikander, owner of logistics firm Sitics Logistic Solutions.

In October, it was reported that online pharmacy Netmeds.com was in talks to acquire Pluss, a hyperlocal drugs delivery startup. The combined entity is expected to take on rival 1mg, an online marketplace for medicines.

Netmeds in October received $50 million (Rs 325 crore) from healthcare-focussed global private equity firm OrbiMed, with participation from existing investors MAPE Advisory Group and CEO and founder Pradeep Dadha's family investment fund.

1mg secured funding from Swiss investment firm HBM Healthcare Investments in May this year, in addition to its Series B round from Maverick Capital Ventures and existing investors Sequoia Capital and Omidyar Network.

In March, Corner Store Technologies Pvt Ltd, a full-service pharmacy targeting patients with chronic illnesses that operates under the brand LifCare, raised $1 million (around Rs 6.6 crore) in angel funding led by investor Rajul Garg.