MedCords with its Sehat Sathi app looks to digitise local pharmacies in five minutes and pursuits to do away with the trust deficit that exists inside the healthcare atmosphere
In the final four months, MedCords has witnessed 5x boom in phrases of paid session and subscriptions, 25+ Lakh users, and has delivered 7K+ clinical shops, in comparison to pre-Covid-19 instances, in which it had incorporated best 300 stores
Going ahead, MedCords looks to automate clinical prescriptions, upload video consultations, and construct a Uber-like aggregator model for doctors and extra
Local drug shops and pharmacies have played a prominent position in India’s healthcare ecosystem for many years. Even until this present day, human beings in rural and semi-urban areas, who've restrained access to healthcare centers, depend on them as the subsequent nice options or ‘aadha medical doctor’ (1/2 a medical doctor).
With Covid-19 inside the photograph, a number of those local pharmacies, that hyperlink medical doctors and sufferers in less advanced regions are in catch 22 situation and fear that e-pharmacy startups including Netmeds, 1mg, Medlife and Pharmeasy will quickly update them, similar to what happened whilst ecommerce giants Amazon and Flipkart took on stores, the repercussions of which are being felt these days with the protests by means of providers and sellers.
Coming to the rescue of such local pharmacy shops in rural and semi-urban regions is MedCords, a healthtech startup from a small town in Kota, Rajasthan, that's currently running on digitising neighborhood pharmacies throughout the u . S . Through localised, hyper-local transport version.
Headquartered in Pune, MedCords turned into founded in 2017 by way of Nikhil Baheti, Saidanaik Dhanavath and Shreyans Mehta. The organisation began its adventure with digitizing affected person health facts and presenting medical doctor teleconsultation service to rural elements of the usa. With its present day Sehat Sathi app, it looks to digitise nearby pharmacies in a matter of minutes (~5 mins) and pursuits to cast off the consider deficit that exists in the healthcare surroundings.
MedCords
“During the Covid-19 lockdown section, quite a few those e-pharmacies had been semi-operational, and there was a scarcity of transport executives to supply medicines to patients. At that factor in time, we started out analysing the state of affairs and started out developing a product [Sehat Sathi], wherein we onboarded bodily clinical shops and converted them into virtual shops, wherein they themselves can supply to close by clients,” recalled cofounder Mehta.
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MedCords believes that doing away with the concern of nearby pharmacies that epharmacies will take over and provide them a few comfort from the deep discounting and transport stress.
MedCords: Is The Future Of Retail Pharmacies Hyperlocal?
Prior to the release of MedCords’ Sehat Sathi app, the enterprise changed into operational in 4 districts of Rajasthan, consisting of Kota, Bundi, Baran and Jhalawar. After the release of its new hyperlocal app, MedCords has multiplied to thirteen states, inclusive of UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh (basically Hindi talking states), in which it has more than 2 hundred-250 networks of retail pharmacies across every state. The organisation stated that through leveraging these networks of medical shops, it has helped MedCords to get new users at a totally much less purchaser acquisition fee of INR 6 according to user.
“For scientific shops, the entire ecosystem opened, in which users didn’t have to pass everywhere else to buy medicines and might at once get admission to close by medical stores. For us, this completed the ecosystem, in which sufferers file, doctor session together with drugs delivery all going on in a hyperlocal way, in a way, optimised the entire operations to a whole new stage,” brought Mehta.
Further, sharing the boom metrics with cft, MedCords highlighted that the platform has completed close to 60K orders until date, and claimed to have grown organically, earning sales up to INR 10 Lakh, inside the span of three months of its app release.
It needs to be cited that MedCords presence inside the urban, Tier 1 and metro cities is usually smaller as compared to other online pharmacies and hyperlocal players like Dunzo, 1mg, Netmeds, PharEasy among others, which are catering to a larger set of target market.
“Often, patients in rural areas go to the city to shop for medicinal drug, and with our platform, they are now not handiest getting their health data digitised and health practitioner teleconsultation for individuals and circle of relatives at an low cost fee, however we are also presenting them the get entry to to close by medical stores on the move,” revealed Mehta, saying that building the trust thing is just as vital as shipping.
Medcords
Covid-19 Brings Telemedicine Into Focus
Backed by Info Edge and WaterBridge Ventures, MedCords claims to have digitised close to 2 Mn fitness information for 25+ Lakh users and has a network of 5K doctors for teleconsultations. Before the pandemic, it best had approximately 1000 docs on its platform. Recently, the business enterprise has also raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Astarc Group, CIIE and different buyers.
In terms of sales generation, MedCords isn't charging anything from pharmacies or docs as it believes that those stakeholders need to earn more given the existing-day situation, but, the corporation said that it earns its revenue from purchasers and individuals at once thru consultation charges and subscription plans.
In fact, inside the closing four months, MedCords stated that it has witnessed 5x increase in terms of paid session and subscriptions, with 4x boom in phrases of users. From three hundred shops in pre-Covid times, it now has 7000+ stores. “Now, sufferers in rural India have realised the significance of virtual healthcare provider because it solves maximum of their queries, which in any other case could have taken 5 years without problems.”
To similarly improve this growth, at a nearby stage, MedCords could be adding extra retail pharmacies and could be making them the logo ambassadors for the Sehat Sathi app. “When local pharmacies advise our community of medical doctors to the patients and vice versa, it mechanically builds consider inside the complete ecosystem, and increasingly more human beings will start the use of our platform,” Mehta brought.
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“Today, there are benchmarks to reach urban audiences, but no benchmarks for rural audiences, wherein customers are surely equipped to spend on their health. Through this strategy, we will not only be producing extra revenue, but also might be adding more subscription, teleconsultation,” said Mehta, commenting on its hyperlocal linked fitness model. In other phrases, the cofounder hinted that achieving out to extra humans in much less time means more revenue.
Going forward, MedCords informed cft that it plans to have greater than 5 Cr users, and digitise more than 1/2 one million medical shops through 2022. In phrases of product development, the employer said that it'll be seeking to automate prescription-writing, add video session services and also assist pharmacies connect with local suppliers and newly-released pharmaceutical merchandise thru the retailer-going through app.
“We are also developing a Uber-like version for docs (physician aggregator platform), in which they can earn by consulting patients, on-call for and availability, and sufferers, alternatively, gets to reach docs with just a click of a button” concluded Mehta.
