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Truemeds, a Mumbai-based healthtech startup, raised $5 million in a Series A funding round from existing investor InfoEdge Ventures, Asha Impact and Indian Angel Network Fund. 

The firm will use the funds to develop fulfilment centres in three new cities — apart from Mumbai, build technology, and automate their supply chains, according to a press note shared by the firm.      

InfoEdge Ventures is the investment arm of Info Edge, a listed firm that owns job portals Naukri and iimjobs, matrimony site Jeevansaathi, and education portal Shiksha. The investor also led Truemeds’ seed of Rs 5.75 crore.

Founded in 2019 by Akshat Nayyar, a management graduate from Indian School of Business, and Dr Kunal Wani, the startup has created a web-based platform and app, which lets people suffering from chronic illnesses — including diabetes and hypertension — find medicines of alternate brands. 

A patient needs to upload their prescription, get on a free consultation call with the platform’s doctor and the medicine is delivered to their doorstep. 

“We are targeting people above the age of 45 who start developing chronic illnesses and then have to regularly take medications. The medications usually prescribed have alternatives, which could be cheaper and do the same job. This brings the monthly spend on medicines,” Akshat Nayar, Co-founder of Truemeds, said in a conversation with YourStory. 

As the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the country, people started paying great attention to their medications and health. Many “immunity-boosting” products took off and so did ordering medicines online. According to YourStory Research, at least $316 million has been raised across 91 deals by healthtech startups, in 2020 

“We have seen Akshat and Kunal execute extremely well throughout last year and demonstrate that their customers find the generic proposition appealing. With this new round, we continue our support for the company as they build further on the proposition to deliver significant savings on healthcare expenses of consumers,” Amit Behl, Partner, InfoEdge Ventures said in the release. 

The platform only claims to suggest alternative medicines from the top 1 percent pharmaceutical brands operating in India, and has grown at least 40 times in monthly orders since their seed round in May 2020.