PharmEasy (API Holdings Ltd)

Company Overview :  Incorporated on 31 March 2019, API Holdings Limited develops and operates an integrated digital healthcare platform through its subsidiaries. The company operates a consumer healthcare app called PharmEasy that enables the home delivery of pharmaceutical products to its customers. It also provides services such as call center management, medical and legal transcription, data processing, warehousing, and database management services. The company has a total of 26 subsidiaries like Docon, Thyrocare, and more.

API Holdings is India’s largest digital healthcare platform with FY21 GMV of USD1.05bn. B2C operations added 21% to FY21 GMV while 72% was B2B. API serves as a wholesaler of pharma and OTC products using Retailio 1P (30% of GMV), as distributor using Retailio 3P (35%) and as medical supplier to hospitals/clinics using Aknamed (8%). Other major services for the company are diagnostics (Thyrocare), ERP systems (Redbook & Marg ERP), EMR & Teleconsult (Docon).

API Holdings Limited is India’s largest digital healthcare firm based on FY21 GMV of USD1.05bn. The company provides services like teleconsultation, diagnostics, B2B and B2C sale of pharma products, EMR systems. API is the parent entity of various healthcare platforms like Retailio, Redbook, Aknamed and Thyrocare.

API is the brand owner of Pharmeasy, marketplace run by Axelia: API holding’s wholly owned subsidiary Threpsi Solutions is the owner of the Pharmeasy brand. Threpsi Solutions has licensed the brand Pharmeasy to Axelia that operates the Pharmeasy marketplace. Axelia is 100% owned by Aarman Solutions and API holding has 19.99% stake in Aarman Solutions. The marketplace is the largest epharmacy platform in India by GMV and had a registered userbase of 25m as of Jun-21. In FY21/1QFY22, 8.8m/4.4m orders were transacted on the platform by 2.4m/2.1m unique customers resulting in GMV of INR10.6bn/5.2bn. As of Jun-21, 58% customers on the platform were from Tier II, III cities.

API Holding’s B2B ops account for more than 2/3rd of total GMV: In FY21, 35% of API’s GMV came from Retailio 3P (third party), a digital platform used by pharmacies to order medicines. Retailio 1P (first party) accounted for 30% of GMV where API serves like a wholesaler; procures a wide range of pharma & OTC products directly from manufacturers and delivers them to retailers. As of Jun-21, 3,261 wholesalers (~5% of all domestic pharma wholesalers) used Retailio to transact with 87,194 pharmacies (11% of all pharmacies in India). On the digital platform, Retailio 1P is listed as one of the wholesalers. API also acts as a medical supplier to hospitals, doctors, clinics and medical centres. The business was scaled-up by the acquisition of Aknamed in Sep-21 which serviced 926 hospitals in 1QFY22. Currently, Retailio 3P earns revenue through advertisements on the platform.

API acquired Thyrocare in Sep-21 and has now become the largest diagnostic test provider by volume in the country. Thyrocare had a comprehensive portfolio of 283 diagnostics tests and 17 labs in India. API provides Electronic Medical Record (EMR), practice management software and teleconsult tools to doctors through its proprietary and AI driven predictive software called Docon (teleconsultation also available on mobile app Docon). During Jun-21, 4,617 prescribing doctors used Docon software and the teleconsultation tool.

Mission & Vision:

The ultimate goal of PharmEasy is to provide affordable healthcare to one and all.

Several services that are offered by PharmEasy:

• Providing digital tools and information on illness and wellness,
• Offering teleconsultation,
• OFfering diagnostics and radiology tests, and
• Delivering treatment protocols including products and devices.

Competitive Strength:

PharmEasy has acquired various healthcare companies to provide better service at affordable costs:

• Medlife Acquisition – In January 2021, API Holdings acquired Medlife, then one of India’s leading digital healthcare companies in terms of GMV of products sold on its platform in the financial year 2021, as per RedSeer Report.
• Thyrocare Acquisition – In September 2021, API Holdings acquired Thyrocare, India’s largest diagnostic player by test volumes, as per RedSeer Report. Thyrocare’s addition to API Holdings has enabled a pan-India diagnostics presence spanning more than 550 districts (as of June 30, 2021) and an ability to serve a large portion of India’s population with a diagnostic test. Thyrocare provided API Holdings the ability to offer diagnostics services to customers across the country, thereby adding complimentary services to our portfolio of offerings. Our technology and digital products will also bring necessary digital capabilities to Thyrocare’s business.
• Aknamed Acquisition – In September 2021, we acquired Aknamed, which strengthened our technology-enabled supplier business of supplying pharmaceutical products, medical consumables, and other surgical products to hospitals, clinics and medical centres. Aknamed is one of the largest tech-enabled suppliers of specialty medicines, pharmaceutical drugs, surgical and medical devices, and other medical products to doctors and hospitals in India, on the basis of revenue in Financial Year 2021 as per the RedSeer Report. Aknamed complements our capability and scale across distribution to pharmacies with the ability to now serve hospitals, clinics and medical centres across the country. Aknamed’s portfolio of products as well as presence in specialty therapies also offers API Holdings the capabilities to roll out chronic care programs across different specialty segments. We can also use Aknamed’s presence in surgical items and other consumables to cross-sell these products to pharmacies on Retailio.
• Investment in Marg ERP Limited – In October 2021, we acquired a 49.17% stake in Marg, one of India’s largest ERP providers for pharmaceutical retailers and wholesalers with over 200,000 pharmacies and wholesalers served as of Fiscal 2021, as per the RedSeer Report. Through the investment in Marg ERP Limited, we now have access to a technology user base and an ERP system that can integrate deeply with API Holdings’ technology products including Retailio, Redbook and PharmEasy to create a seamless technology layer that can strengthen our ecosystem-based approach to offer healthcare services and digital payments amongst others as well as market intelligence through the large volume of data that our integrated technology layers can create. Marg ERP Limited along with Retailio would also allow us to build relationships with pharmacies and wholesalers as our products power both operations as well as commerce opportunities.

Key Strength of PharmEasy:

With these capabilities of their scaled presence, they now touch stakeholders across healthcare – consumers, pharmaceutical companies, wholesalers, pharmacies, hospitals, doctors and clinics and diagnostic and radiology labs. This presence allows them to offer integrated bouquet of products, services and technology to all stakeholders, with each having an ability to cross-sell services and products of one stakeholder to the other or their customers. As an illustration, pharmacies which are using the Retailio platform for their procurement and payments, can use Marg ERP Limited’s systems for their technology backbone, become a seller on the PharmEasy marketplace, offer tele-consult services by tying up with Docon and use the extensive Thyrocare network to provide diagnostic services.

They work closely with, and build technology-enabled services for consumers, pharmaceutical companies, wholesalers, pharmacies, hospitals, doctors and clinics and diagnostic and radiology labs. Their growing nationwide presence, the connected ecosystem approach, and multiple synergistic offerings have enabled them to build relationships with various stakeholders of the healthcare value chain. PharmEasy is India’s leading consumer healthcare super app for consumers (providing online pharmacy, OTC, teleconsultation and diagnostics services) in terms of GMV of products and services sold on the platform in the financial year 2021 according to the RedSeer Report.

Valuations:

The company’s revenue has grown massively increasing from INR 737.4 Cr in FY’20 to INR 2360.6 Cr in FY’21. This increase is mainly attributable to the massive rise in demand for pharmaceuticals due to the spread the of pandemic across the country. The assets of the company have shown a massive growth of 757% in FY’21 over FY’20. This growth in assets is attributable to the increase in cash and cash equivalents which have increased mainly due to the increase in deposit accounts by INR150.0 Cr in FY’21. The major reason of increase in assets is the growth in the goodwill value which has increased from INR 0.7 Cr in FY’20 to INR 3192.1 Cr in FY’21, which is because of the acquisition of Ascent Health as well as Medlife International including its subsidiaries in FY’21.

The cash flow from operations has further decreased by INR 361.6 Cr in FY’21 over FY’20. This is due to the large loss faced by the company in FY’21 as well as the increase in current liabilities which is mainly attributable to the large increase in the company’s short term borrowings in FY’21.