1mg sees eight-fold hike in revenue as losses widen for FY18

Gurugram-based 1mg Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which runs online drug marketplace 1mg, has seen its revenue from operations surge over eight times for the financial year 2017-18, its filings with the Registrar of Companies show.

At the same time, the firm’s losses also rose by more than three times for the financial year ended 31 March 2018.

The e-pharma seller reported Rs 85.8 crore in consolidated revenue from operations for 2017-18, up from Rs 9.4 crore in the preceding year.

Its losses, due to tough competition in the market, stood at Rs 192 crore as compared to Rs 58 crore it had reported during 2016-17.

The largest chunk of expenses has came from other expenses, which stood at Rs 130.6 crore during the year. Employee expenses were Rs 54.7 crore. The company did not mention its marketing expenses, under which most companies report the losses from discounts. 1mg had cash and cash equivalents of Rs 54.5 crore at the end of March 2018.

Unlike the previous financial year, the sale of services accounted for half of 1mg’s revenue and the remaining came from products. Interestingly, the company had only reported the sale of products in the financial year ending March 2017.

Calls made to 1mg co-founder Prashant Tandon went unanswered at the time of filing this report.

In a separate interview in April this year, Tandon had told TechCircle that the platform gets more than eight million unique users every month and it has expanded its labs and e-consultation business over the past year, with online medicine sales accounting only for 60% of its revenue. However, going by the financial data from the regulatory filings, the company has probably managed to grow the vertical to almost 50%.

1mg

The venture was founded as HealthKartPlus in 2012 by Tandon and Sameer Maheshwari. The firm operates a mobile app and a web platform that allow customers to order medicines and select healthcare professionals. It also launched a diagnostics service to help customers get lab tests done.

In April this year, 1mg raised close to $10 million (around Rs 65 crore) in a fresh round of funding from existing investors Sequoia Capital, Maverick Capital and HBM Healthcare Investments. 

In July 2017, it secured $15 million (Rs 96.7 crore then) in its Series C funding round and Rs 100 crore ($15 million then) in its Series B round in April 2016. In April 2015, it raised $6 million (Rs 32 crore) from a clutch of investors.

Besides Sequoia Capital, Maverick Capital and HBM Healthcare, others who have invested in the venture include Kae Capital, Intel Capital, Omidyar Network and MakeMyTrip founder Deep Kalra.

Early this year, the government released draft regulations for the sector and they were largely welcomed by companies in the space. The regulations rekindled hope for the sector with many companies managing to raise funding this year.

Other players in the segment include Netmeds, PharmEasy, Myra and Medlife. Brick-and-mortar retail pharmacies such as MedPlus and Guardian Lifecare have also entered the online segment.