Truemeds, a telehealth startup based in Mumbai has raised $22 million in Series B funding led by private equity fund WestBridge Capital to accelerate growth in the untapped domestic market and expand its coverage across the country.
Akshat Nayyar, Co-founder and CEO of Truemeds, said, “India is one of the very few markets where we have pseudo-categorisation of medicines in branded and generic-generic to create different price tiers between them. 95 percent of the drugs sold in India are off-patent (thus technically generics). There is absolutely no difference in the scientific composition of generics and branded drugs.”
“Indian generic to generic market is growing at 1.5 times the overall pharmaceutical market and following the US landscape where the generics prescription share moved from 40 percent in 2005 to over 85 percent in 2019. The market move towards generics is inevitable and Truemeds will lead that change,” Akshat stated.
The funding round was oversubscribed. Furthermore, the company decided to cap the raise to $22 million.
Founded in 2019 by ex-Abbott executives Akshat Nayyar and Dr Kunal Wani, Truemeds is a telehealth platform in India focused on reducing the burden of medicine bills by recommending best value alternate brands to chronic patients through its proprietary algorithm and free doctor teleconsultation.
In June 2021, it raised $5 million in a Series A round from existing investor InfoEdge Ventures, Asha Impact and Indian Angel Network Fund.
Truemeds records tremendous growth over the last 2 years
The startup leverages its intelligent medicine recommendation engine to help patients find the best value medicines from the top one percent medicine manufacturers in India and provides free doctor consultations to help patients make the right decisions for themselves.
Truemeds customer saves around 47 percent on their medicine bills and this can go as high as 70 percent. That is a life changing number for an average Indian chronic patient spending Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 every month on medicines.
Truemeds claims that it has witnessed phenomenal growth in the last two years on the back of strong product-market-fit and a massive organic demand.
Sandeep Singhal, Managing Director, Westbridge Capital, added, “We are excited to partner with Truemeds as they create value for patients by delivering high quality drugs at affordable prices at the patients’ doorstep. The founding team’s strong category understanding has resulted in the success at Truemeds.”
The new round also saw participation from existing investors including InfoEdge Ventures, Asha Impact, and IAN Fund.
