Naspers unit Prosus Ventures announced on Thursday it has co-led a $350 million (R5 billion) investment in HealthTech company API Holdings, which owns India’s largest integrated digital healthcare platforms.
The investment was co-led by Prosus Ventures and TPG Growth. Existing investors including Temasek, CDPQ, LGT Lightrock, Eight Roads & Think Investments also participated in the Series E round.
Prosus Ventures (formerly Naspers Ventures) is the venture investing arm of Prosus that identifies new consumer needs that are being transformed by technology and finds founders and entrepreneurs at companies across the globe who are addressing those needs in the most innovative ways.
API Holdings owns India’s largest integrated digital healthcare platforms. The company’s platforms empower and connect over 60,000 brick & mortar pharmacies and 4,000 doctors in 16,000 zip codes across India.
The platforms digitize and organize supply chains to provide easy access for pharmacies to affordable and authentic products in the shortest possible time.
The platforms also provide SaaS solutions for pharmacies to use in procurement combined with delivery and logistics support, and credit solutions to buy over 200,000 medicines from over 3,000 pharmaceutical manufacturers.
This is Prosus Ventures’s first investment in HealthTech.
“We are always looking for big areas of consumer spend that are ripe for disruption, and outpatient healthcare in India fits perfectly within that remit. API Holdings has built a comprehensive solution that meets the needs of key players in the healthcare ecosystem in India and their platforms have the potential to become so much more over time,” Ashutosh Sharma, Head of India Investments, Prosus Ventures, said.
” The team at API Holdings have shown great discipline building effective solutions across the pharmaceutical supply chain and we have great confidence in their ability to further scale their platforms for the benefit of all.”
API Holdings also owns the largest consumer digital healthcare platform, which touches the lives of two million patients each month by providing access to genuine products at affordable prices in the convenience of their home.
It provides products to patients by enabling last-mile delivery, discoverability and connectivity tools to 60,000+ pharmacies, often delivering products in under a few hours. It has served over 20 million patients since its inception.
“I am particularly proud that we have been able to not only provide consumers with much faster and easier access to the healthcare products and services they need but that we have been able to do so by empowering and digitizing 60,000 small pharmacy stores that provide such an essential service to the Indian public,” said Siddharth Shah, API Holdings Co-Founder and CEO.
“Finding a solution that means we can work together, and all parties can benefit from the improvements in the system continues to be a driving force for the entire team.”
