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After Food Delivery, Ola Steps Into E-Pharma: Plans Collaboration With Drug Delivery Startup Myra Medicines
Representative image of the Ola app on a smartphone (Hemant Mishra/Mint via Getty Images)
App-based cab aggregator Ola has entered discussions to either invest it in or outright acquire the medicine delivery startup Myra Medicines, which has a common investor Matrix Partners with the former, reports Mint.
The deal may conclude by the end of this month, and if successful, will mark Ola’s entry into the medical delivery space.
The company already acquired food delivery app Foodpanda around a year ago, and is looking to expand its presence in similar delivery domains.
Myra Medicines is currently facing issues competing in the immensely crowded medicine delivery segment.
Other notable moves toward expansion undertaken by Ola include acquiring public transportation app Ridlr, making a $100 million investment in scooter-sharing startup Vogo, and also starting its own payments system Ola Money.
In the medicine delivery space, Ola will have to compete with the likes of established players such as PharmEasy, Netmeds and 1mg, who have themselves been on fund-raising sprees.
Myra Medicines, which was founded by Faizan Aziz and Anirudh Coontoor in 2013, is relatively a lot smaller, and the company will also have to grapple with the regulatory uncertainty that is plaguing the e-pharmacy space.
The $210 million dollar e-pharmacy market has also elicited the interest of e-commerce titans Flipkart and Amazon, as well as food delivery company Swiggy and grocery delivery startup BigBasket.
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