Pluss, an on-demand medicine and healthcare products delivery service has raised $1 million in pre-Series A funding from IDG Ventures India, m & s partners (Singapore) and Powerhouse Ventures (USA). They ensure timely delivery of medicines and products to the customer’s doorstep. The funding amount will be used to upgrade its technology and technical team, perform aggressive marketing, and establish a presence in 5 cities and pilot new projects.
Based out of Gurgaon, Pluss was incorporated in 2015 by Atit Jain, Madhulika Pandey and Tarun Lawadia after witnessing the country’s largely un organized health care industry, which is worth billions of dollars. In a country where everything, including groceries and food, is delivered at the doorstep in a short span of time, the problem of timely medicine delivery remained unsolved. Through their own fleet of delivery executives, proudly named as ‘Pluss Men’, Pluss takes the responsibility of fulfilling the orders on time. The team, comprising of licensed pharmacists and trained delivery executives, is equipped to handle medicine properly and make sure that they are delivered with utmost care.
Commenting on this fundraising, Atit Jain, CEO of Pluss said, “We at Pluss prioritize all our activities towards delivering healthcare to our customers in the fastest, easiest and most reliable way possible.. With the help of this funding, we will expand our presence across 5 cities by the end of this year.”
“Pharmacy retail is highly dis-organized in India. The technology platform lends itself with an audit trail and will be better placed to meet the compliances as they evolve. IDGVI is very excited to partner with Pluss to address this huge opportunity” said Ranjith Menon, Executive Director at IDG Ventures India Advisors.
“Pluss has the potential to revolutionize the way Indians receive their medicines. The idea of delivering healthcare products, including medicines, has been around; what is exciting to Powerhouse Ventures is the use of technology to build efficiency, speed, scale, cost reduction and premium customer service in changing the way Indian consumers engage with the healthcare landscape. More importantly, Atit, Madhulika and Tarun bring the right blend of strategic, marketing and technical competencies to put traditional consumer-pharmacy behaviours to the test. Pluss fits perfectly into our expanding healthcare portfolio” said Sri Peddu, Managing Director at Powerhouse Ventures.
“We strongly believe that people need this service for sure and that Pluss team is the best one which can execute its service with quality and speed!”, says Founder/Director of m & s partners (Singapore).
The app subscriber base has grown more than 50% month on month and has tripled in the last 3 months. The app order volume has grown 4 times since September with peak traffic of 500 orders per day. By the end of this year it plans to add a lot more to its product categories, including Medical Tests and Surgical Equipment. With the health products market expected to grow at a CAGR of 15% and touch $158.2 Billion in 2017, Pluss has placed a bet on hyper local delivery, envisioning emerging as India’s reigning name in the healthcare sector.
Pluss is an on-demand medicine delivery app which standardizes your experience irrespective of your location and the store from where your medicines come. Pluss gives you the ease and simplicity of ordering from an app, the experience of a trusted pharmacy and the convenience and speed of ordering from a neighbourhood store. In addition to delivering medicines, through Pluss you can also order baby care, pet care, personal wellness and daily essential products. The app available both on android and iOS.
IDG Ventures India is a leading India-focused technology venture capital fund. The fund is part of IDG Ventures, a global network of technology venture funds with approximately US$4 billion under management, over 200 investee companies and 10 offices across Asia and North America.The fund’s lead investor and sponsor is the International Data Group (IDG), the world’s largest IT media company. By combining the IDG platform – an unparalleled combination of global technology publishing, market research (IDC), and conferences/exhibition resources – with years of hands-on experience in company building, IDG Ventures India helps its investee companies understand their markets better and penetrate them faster than their competition.Leading technology companies that IDG Ventures has invested in globally includes BabyCenter, F5 Networks, Netscape, Service Metrics and VA Linux in North America and Baidu, Ctrip, Sohu, Tencent and VinaGame in Asia. In India, the fund has invested in leading digital companies such as Flipkart, Myntra, Brainbees (Firstcry.Com), Valyoo (Lenskart.Com) and Yatra
Powerhouse Ventures (PV) is a US-VC firm with significant investment interest in India. PV supports early-stage companies in high-growth sectors, where technology is the driver.PV has invested in nearly 20 companies across India in the past 20 months. In addition to India’s first sports-focused vertical, PV is building a large health-tech vertical within the fund.
m&s partners (Singapore)
Hiro Mashita, Founder/Director of m&s partners Pte. Ltd. has been supporting companies in US, Japan, China, India, and SE Asia, and currently is very active in India. He has already invested in more than 20 Indian companies for last 7 months as of November 2015