Temasek leads a $135 million fundraising round for HealthKart

According to a statement released by the firm, omni-channel nutrition retailer HealthKart has raised $135 million in a Series H round of funding, which was headed by the fund Temasek, which is based in Singapore. Additionally, A91 Partners and Kae Capital contributed to the round through their participation. The company was estimated to be worth Rs 3,000 crore (about $370 million) after the fundraising round, according to the sources.
In 2015, the old brand HealthKart Plus had its medicine division spun off into a new company called 1mg, which is currently funded by the Tata Group. This event led to the formation of HealthKart in its current guise, which took place in 2015. Prashant Tandon and Sameer Maheshwari, who currently serve as the CEOs of 1mg and HealthKart, were the initial founders of the company in 2011. They established it in 2011.
ET was informed by Maheshwari that the company planned to use the cash to bolster the HealthKart brand by expanding further into areas that are adjacent to its existing businesses, expanding its distribution network, and continuing to engage in research and development. “In addition, we also aim to extend the HealthKart platform to other markets, and we will also be looking at strategic acquisitions in the nutrition field that can fit into our platform,” he said. “We will also be looking at the possibility of integrating HealthKart with other platforms.” Maheshwari responded to a question about whether or not the company has begun the process of identifying potential acquisition targets by stating, “We have begun evaluating—if we see a good fit, or come across some founders… because now I think our scale has gone to a reasonable level, and with available resources, we are in a position where we have also strengthened our platform.”
The most recent funding for the company came in the form of a Series G round in May 2019, to which investment firm Sofina contributed $25 million. Maheshwari also stated that the company is on track to achieve an annual revenue run rate of Rs 1,000 crore for FY23, which would represent an increase in topline revenue of almost 50% from FY22 levels. It has not yet submitted the earnings report for FY22. “HealthKart has the opportunity to establish the greatest and most significant consumer brand in the health and nutritional industry,” stated VT Bharadwaj from A91 Partners. It is a digital-first pioneer that has successfully converted into an omni-channel firm and established market leadership in the segments it works in for the previous five years.
Bharadwaj said, “We are excited to support Sameer and his team as they double down on their core offering and expand the health and supplement basket to new categories (high protein foods) and new customers (children).” “We are excited to support Sameer and his team as they double down on their core offering and expand the health and supplement basket to new categories.”
As part of its omni-channel strategy, the company also intends to create physical retail locations in the near future. “After COVID, we were really anxious about what was going to happen to the physical world; nevertheless, our platform has already grown by a factor of three since then, and as a result, we had to close a significant number of stores” (during COVID). “Before the COVID incident, we had 115 stores; after the incident, we dropped to 90 stores; however, we’re now up to 140 stores,” Maheshwari added. “Because this is an area in which customers need to be educated, stores provide us with a significant competitive advantage in terms of tapping customers.” There will be a consistent growth of retail establishments. “We are going to tier-2 and tier-3 towns, and I see that by this time next year we should have around 250 physical stores,” he said, adding that stores would be just one of the company’s distribution channels. “I see that by this time next year we should have around 250 physical stores.”