Tata Digital commits to infuse over $13 mn in 1mg

Epharmacy and health technology platform 1mg, operated by 1mg Technologies, has received a commitment of nearly Rs 100 crore ($13.3 million according to current exchange rates) from Tata Digital in a growth funding round.

The Gurugram based company, Ministry of Corporate Affairs filings show, has received 25% of the amount, while Rs 75 crore is to be paid according to terms of the Class 7 CCD issued.  

As part of the transaction, 29.054 shares were issued to the investor at a face value of Rs 34,417.87, the filings show.  

The news was first reported by Entrackr.  

According to a separate filing dated April 15, 2021, 1mg also allotted 1,119 equity shares at a premium of Rs 34,416.87 to returning investors, including Swiss firm Corisol Holding’s subsidiary KWE Beteiligungen, Swiss healthcare focused venture capital firm HBM Healthcare Investments, International Finance Corporation, MPOF Mauritius and MAF Mauritius.  

The company had raised Rs 133 crore ($17.8 million at the time) in a debt round from the same set of investors in July 2020.

Tata Digital has reportedly been in talks to acquire 1mg to strengthen its proposed ecommerce play across retail, grocery, epharmacy and other sectors.  

In March, Tata Digital sought the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI’s) approval to acquire a 64.3% stake in Alibaba backed online grocery player Bigbasket.   

Founded in 2011 by Prashant Tandon, Gaurav Agarwal and Vikas Chauhan, 1mg clocked a total revenue of Rs 369.3 crore in financial year 2019-20 (FY20). The total loss for the period stood at Rs 317.8 crore. The company’s expenses rose to Rs 687.2 crore for the period.  

With the combined entity of Pharmeasy and Medlife valued at over $1.2 billion, the epharmacy space is seeing increased competition and consolidation.  

In a move to build ecommerce play, Reliance Industries had also acquired epharmacy player Netmeds in August 2020.