Exclusive: PharmEasy Names Yatharth Bhargova As Its New CFO

Healthtech unicorn PharmEasy has named Yatharth Bhargova as the new group CFO of its parent entity – API Holdings Private Limited. Sources privy to the development told Inc42 that Bhargova was appointed in September.

A resolution passed by the PharmEasy board in July appointing Bhargova as the CFO of the company, further confirms this development. 

Meanwhile, email queries sent to PharmEasy and Bhargova did not elicit any response until the time of publishing this story. 

Bhargova was earlier the CEO and CFO of OLX Autos’ Indonesia business. His span with OLX lasted for almost eight years. Before joining OLX, he was the head of finance at Healthkart and 1mg. 

His appointment comes almost a year after the exit of CV Ram, who was the group CFO of API Holdings. Ram left PharmEasy in October of 2022 and joined as the group CFO of Enterio Healthcare in January. 

After Ram’s Exit and until the appointment of Bhargova, Abhinav Jain and Milind Pattarkine took care of the group’s activities and reported to the PharmEasy founders directly. 

However, Abhinav, too, stepped down in October after serving PharmEasy for almost seven years. Following his exit, Yathartha was appointed as the new full-time group CFO.

The fresh appointment of Bhargova comes at a crucial time when PharmEasy is trying to repay its debt taken from Goldman Sachs. 

Earlier, PharmEasy breached its loan covenant terms with Goldman Sachs within a year after raising the high-cost debt.

As per the loan terms, the startup was expected to raise an equity round of around INR 1,000 Cr ($120 Mn) but failed to do so. The company had raised the debt to pay off a previous debt that it had taken to buy Thyrocare.

Ever since withdrawing its IPO papers in mid 2022, the company has been looking to raise capital. In July this year, the startup decided to raise capital through rights issues. Last month, cofounder Dhaval Shah claimed that PharmEasy’s recently conducted INR 3,500 Cr rights issue was oversubscribed.

“We raised INR 3,500 Cr and there was more demand which we had to politely reject. Every single shareholder stood up and supported us, believed in our vision and saw value in what the team at API is building,” Shah wrote on Linkedin.

The primary goal was to pay a significant portion of its outstanding to Goldman Sachs. According to previous reports, Temasek Holdings, CDPQ, LGT, and the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ committed to investing INR 2,000 Cr in the epharma startup.

Besides, Ranjan Pai of Manipal Health Enterprises, who is now deemed the white knight for the startup ecosystem, is planning to invest INR 1,200 Cr in PharmEasy. 

Founded in 2015 by Dharmil Sheth, Dhaval Shah, Harsh Parekh, Siddharth Shah, and Hardik Dedhia, PharmEasy sells medicines online and also offers diagnostic tests through its subsidiaries. The startup has raised capital worth $1 Bn and counts names such as B Capital, Temasek, Eight Roads Ventures, Prosus, and Bessemer Venture Partners as its backers. 

PharmEasy’s consolidated revenue from operations grew to INR 5,729 Cr in FY22 from INR 2,235 Cr in FY21. Despite this, its losses shot up 4X YoY to INR 2,731 Cr. PharmEasy competes with the likes of Tata-owned 1mg, Practo, and Flipkart in the Indian healthtech space.