Online pharmacy and healthcare firm Tata 1mg is the latest entrant in India¡¯s unicorn club after an internal funding round led by Tata Digital, sources briefed on the matter said, as per ET report.
The company has raised a funding of $41 million, taking its valuation to $1.25 billion, the report mentioned.?For the uninitiated, unicorns are privately held companies with a valuation of $1 billion or more.
In June last year, Tata Digital had acquired 1mg at a valuation of around $450 million. It owns around 60% stake in the online pharmacy company.?
¡°The new financing has happened at a significant premium though the discussions were for a higher valuation before the markets turned choppy. This is also for the time being and the company will look to raise a bigger round later this year or next year,¡± one of the people mentioned above said, as per the report.
According to regulatory filings, about $40 million funding is in already, with Tata Digital and others participating in it. Others who participated in the round reportedly include existing investors MPOF Mauritius, HBM Healthcare Investments, KWE Beteiligungen, among others.
¡°Around $1 million more is coming. Besides Tatas, some other existing investors have participated in the round,¡± according to another person mentioned in the ET report.
This is the third unicorn under the Tatas¡¯ ecommerce venture, after e-grocery firm BigBasket and Mukesh Bansal¡¯s Cultfit.?
1mg has also become the 21st startup to join India¡¯s unicorn list this year.
This comes at a time when late-stage funding has become increasingly hard to come by amid changes in market sentiment,? after a record year in 2021.
Gurugram-based 1mg reportedly saw revenue from operations more than double to Rs 627 crore in fiscal year 2022 compared to Rs 309 crore in FY21. Its losses also increased by over 67% to Rs 526 crore compared to a Rs 314 crore loss a year ago. It was founded in April 2015 by Prashant Tandon, Gaurav Agarwal and Vikas Chauhan.
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Besides the pharmacy business, Tata 1mg is reportedly increasingly looking to widen its diagnostic business to position itself as a digital health platform offering a range of services including online doctor consultations.
It has also already opened a couple of offline stores in Delhi-NCR and is running them as a pilot, while its omni-channel play is in line with parent Tata Digital¡¯s plans to have both online and offline presence for its brands.
On the other hand, Tata 1mg rival PharmEasy is also looking to raise a new round after canceling its plans for an IPO. Reliance-owned Netmeds also competes with 1mg besides traditional pharmacy Apollo, as per the report.
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