Online pharmacy 1mg Technologies Pvt. Ltd has acquired Mumbai-based MediAngels (Angels Health Pvt. Ltd) for an undisclosed amount in cash and stocks to enter specialty doctor consultations, corporate health services, and insurance partnerships.
“Our consumers can now access a deep network of over 450 super specialists across India and the world, and we also get an entry into the corporate health space through this platform,” 1mg’s co-founder Prashant Tandon said in a statement on Wednesday.
Founded in 2011 by Arbinder Singhal and Debraj Shome, MediAngels is a platform for patients to seek online consultations for specialized medical cases in cardiology, cancer, neurosurgery, orthopedics, and pediatrics, among other areas, from its network of doctors covering 93 specialties.
In 2014, Mint reported that MediAngels had raised $1 million from Ventureast Tenet Fund and the government of India’s technology development board.
As a business-to-business (B2B) service, MediAngels also provides services to insurers and corporates who enroll for second opinions and employee health benefits.
Insurers, for instance, consult doctors to ask whether a given patient should undertake a surgery or not.
“Within 1mg ecosystem, we plan to scale up second opinions and drive B2B engagements with more insurers and corporates. Our robust technology tools will help them optimize employee benefits spends on healthcare and to have a healthier workforce,” said Singhal.
With this acquisition, 1mg’s employee strength will increase to 301.
MediAngels, which has a team of 10-15 people, will continue to build the doctor network and B2B health services for the corporate users in Mumbai led by Singhal, said Tandon in a telephonic interview.
“Arbinder will drive the corporate relations and the doctor specialist network. He will build the network in line with the online platform (of 1mg), expand (services in) B2B- by also offering them online pharmacy, diagnostics and doctor consultation and not only second opinion (services),” added Tandon.
1mg operates an online marketplace for medicines, besides facilitating medical appointments and diagnostic test bookings. 1mg was earlier called HealthkartPlus, the generic drug search business of Healthkart, an online vendor of health products run by Bright Lifecare Pvt. Ltd. In April 2015, HealthkartPlus was spun off into a separate entity and rebranded 1mg.
1mg has 30-40 pharmacies that fulfill medicine orders, across 13 cities, Tandon said in an interview in November. He added that 1mg is preparing to roll out subscription services for patients with chronic health issues such diabetes, blood pressure, among others. 1mg plans to expand to 30 cities in the next six to nine months.
Backed by Maverick Capital Ventures, HBM Healthcare Investments AG, Sequoia Capital and Omidyar Network, 1mg has raised over Rs100 crore in series B round of funding this year.
In health tech start-ups, 1mg competes with Practo Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which has raised about $124 million from investors such as Tencent Holdings Ltd, Sofina SA, Google Capital and Altimeter. Among other competitors are Netmeds and Zigy. While global healthcare fund OrbiMed has invested in Netmeds.com, Zigy counts IT industry veteran Phaneesh Murthy as its investor.
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Source: Mint
