NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

India’s pharmaceutical market is filled with generic options—but they don’t always save consumers money. In fact, some drugs are even more expensive than their branded counterparts. Created to give patients more power over their health costs, startup 1mgannounced today that it has raised a $16 million Series B led by Maverick Capital Ventures, with participation from returning investors Sequoia India and Omidiyar Network.

1mg currently offers two main services: an online pharmacy and a platform for finding medical labs. Founder Prashant Tandon says the company’s new funding will be used to build more analytic tools, expand to 30 Indian cities by the end of 2017, and enter new online health verticals.

Founded in 2012 as a drug information app called HealthKartPlus, 1mg spun out from its parent company, Bright Lifecare, last year and changed its name last year after raising about $5.5 million in its first funding round. Now 1mg claims more than 5 million app downloads, and two million monthly unique visitors who view a total of 25 million pages every month.

Before becoming an entrepreneur, Tandon worked with healthcare clients as a consultant at McKinsey in San Francisco. After moving back to India in 2009, he founded his first startup with Sameer Maheshwari. Called HealthChakra, it developed management software for healthcare providers that included an online prescription platform with information about all medicines available in India.