BENGALURU: E-commerce giant Flipkart has acquired a majority share in online pharmacy and digital healthcare platform Sastasundar Marketplace (SML) for an undisclosed amount. Through this acquisition, it enters the healthcare sector with the launch of Flipkart Health+.
The move comes a year after Flipkart’s rival Amazon India started selling medicines on its marketplace. Reliance Retail too acquired Netmeds last year for Rs 620 crore. Tata Digital is also in the healthcare space with the acquisition of 1 MG in June this year.
A recent report by Frost & Sullivan says that the e-pharmacies market in the country will reach around Rs 25,000 crore by 2022 and it is growing at a CAGR of 63% from 2018. SastaSundar.com was founded in 2013 by B L Mittal and Ravi Kant Sharma and it was supported by a network of more than 490 pharmacies.
According to exchange data, SML’s turnover was Rs 258 lakh in the last fiscal and its net worth stood at Rs 417 lakh. The agreement between Flipkart and SML will be effective on or before December 17, 2021. The company was last valued at $125 million in 2019.