Saveo Raises $3.4 Mn To Streamline B2B Pharma Supply Chain

SUMMARY

Saveo will also use the investment to finance capital expenditure and to meet its current working capital requirements

Led by Matrix Partners, Gunosy Capital, and 4point0 Health Ventures, the round also saw participation from LC Nueva, Jetty Ventures, Ocgrow Ventures and Capier Investments

The startup had last raised $4 Mn in a funding round from Matrix Partners India and RTP Global in January last year

The pharmacy startup will use the funding to accelerate growth and expand footprint across the country. Saveo will also use the investment to finance capital expenditure and to meet its current working capital requirements.

The Board of the company passed a special resolution to allot 3,694 seed compulsorily convertible preference shares (Seed CCPS) at an issue price of INR 76,851.40 per share.

Regulatory filings accessed by Inc42 show that 521 shares each were allotted to LC Nueva, Jetty Ventures and Gunosy Capital for a consideration of INR 4 Cr. Similarly, Matrix Partners India also picked up 504 shares for INR 3.87 Cr, while Tejal Merchantile picked up 456 shares at around INR 3.5 Cr.

Once the allotment goes through, investors shareholding in the company would include:

Matrix Partners will own 11.81% of the startup (through its multiple holdings)
RTP Global will hold 10.42%
IQ Alpha will hold 9.06%
LC Nueva will own 5.71% of the stakes
Incubate Fund will acquire 4.87% of the total stakes

Founded in 2019 by IIT alumni Amit Kumar, Anurag Savarnya, Shivansh Shrivastava and Vivek Jaiswal, Saveo operates a marketplace that acts as a procurement point between pharmaceutical companies and retailers for surgical, homoeopathic and allopathic medicines. It also operates another vertical which enables brick and mortar pharmacy stores to digitise their businesses.

This is the second seed funding round raised by the B2B ecommerce marketplace in the last 19 months. It had raised $4 Mn as part of its previous funding round from Matrix Partners India and RTP Global in January last year.

Saveo competes with the likes of Pharmarack and Biddano in the highly competitive space.

According to latest data, the B2B marketplace reported an operating revenue of INR 8.05 Cr in the financial year 2020-21 (FY21), up from INR 1.93 Cr in FY20. However, the startup’s losses grew 14X to INR 4.72 Cr in FY21 from INR 33 Lakh in FY20.

Saveo operates at the intersection of SaaS and epharmacy. According to a recent Inc42 report, SaaS healthtech space is estimated to grow at the fastest pace within the burgeoning healthtech space at a CAGR of 45% by 2025. The epharmacy segment too is expected to see a major uptick and is projected to see a growth of 38% CAGR by 2025.

As a result, the space has seen a steady inflow of venture capital funds. Earlier on Tuesday, paediatric development-focused Butterfly Learnings raised $1.5 Mn in a seed round led by Insitor Partners, 9Unicorns, and others.

Earlier this month, CoverSelf bagged $4.8 Mn in a seed funding round led by BEENEXT and 3one4 Capital. In the same month, Tata-backed month also emerged as the 107th unicorn to emerge as the country’s fifth healthtech unicorn.

An Inc42 report projects the overall Indian healthtech market to grow to $21 Bn in size by 2025.

The development was first reported by Entrackr.