Cipla Ltd has reportedly agreed to pick a stake in GoApptivPvt. Ltd, in the Indian drug-maker’s second such bet on a digital healthcare start-up since last year.
In a stock-exchange filing Cipla is supposedly acquiring a 21.85% stake in GoAppptiv for a cash consideration of about Rs. 9 crores. In about two stages the deal is expected to get completed. Cipla in the first stage will be subscribing to 15,392 compulsorily convertible preference shares (CCPS) along with 6,927 equity shares. This is supposed to get closed within 30 days. Cipla in the second stage, will be subscribing to 12, 314 CCPS by the end of October 2020.
Rajasekhar Parcha and SreeramVenkitaraman who are the founders of Mumbai -based GoApptiv reportedly said it helps pharmaceutical companies to get engaged with channel partners and improve the reach of big brands to smaller town.
Along with this, it even offers digital platforms for customer relationship management, business tracking, Artificial intelligence/ machine learning based data analytics, data integration, patient support, and assistance in India.
In the fiscal ended 30 March 2020, the start-up managed to clock revenues of Rs. 19.03 crore in comparison to Rs. 2.48 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 1.23 crore in 2017-2018.
Cipla in Feb last year had reportedly agreed to acquire an 11.71 % stake WellthyTherapeuticsPvt. Ltd. which is a health tech start-up for Rs. 10.5 crore.
Cipla then had said that the deal is a part of its Innoventia campaign which aims to acknowledge and encourage innovation-led entrepreneurship and to harness disruptive ideas in healthcare.
Such investments by Cipla turns out to be rare since traditional healthcare firms have stayed mostly away from striking bets in healthtech start-ups in the country. In fact, even healthcare professionals make investments in their respective capacity.
Nevertheless, healthcare start-ups keep receiving prominent funding from Venture capital and private equity investors.
HealthPlix Technologies Pvt. Ltd which is into running an AI based medical records platform raised about $6 million (INR 45 Crore) just earlier this week in its Series B funding round which was led by new investor JSW Ventures.
The merged entity of doctor consultation platform Docsapp and Bengaluru based MediBuddy last week received $20 million as part of its Series B round of funding. VCCircle reported earlier this month that Stellaris Venture Partners invested in a health-technology start-up based in Bengaluru. Certain other health tech start-ups that raised seed funding in recent months include Doceree, Phable, Zealthy, MedCords and Sascan.
Health-tech according to a VCCircle survey is supposedly the most preferred sub-domain for Venture Capitalists this year.
