Netmeds acquires medicine delivery startup Pluss to expand reach in North India

E-pharmacy Netmeds has acquired rival hyperlocal medicine delivery startup Pluss in an all-stock deal aimed at expanding its operations and reach in Northern India. The merger will also enable the Netmeds to compete against the likes of prominent players like 1mg, Aermed etc. The financial details of the transaction haven’t been disclosed.

After the acquisition, Pluss will be merged with Netmeds and continue to operate under its banner bringing the company’s total headcount to about 450. This will also result in the relocation of some senior executives of Pluss to Chennai, to work out of Netmeds’ headquarters.

“This acquisition makes a lot of sense for us, since it allows us to scale quicker, and shorten the delivery interval and improve efficiency in Tier 1 metros,” said Netmeds CEO Pradeep Dadha.

PLuss was founded in 2015 by Atit Jain, Madhulika Pandey, Tarun Lawadia, as an on-demand medicine delivery app aimed at standardizing medicine buying experience by simplifying the process.

The Delhi-based company has raised a sum total of $1 million in seed funding so far led by IDG Ventures. “We were being courted by a couple of big players but when it was time to pick a team, we decided to go with the undisputed leader,” said Atit Jain, the co-founder of Pluss.

Launched in 2010, Chennai-based Netmeds boasts of nearly one million customers from 700 cities with 65 percent of the business generated from tier-II and III cities.