$1 billion+ club round-up: PharmEasy acquires Thyrocare, MindTickle eyes Softbank funding, and more
$1 billion+ club round-up: PharmEasy acquires Thyrocare, MindTickle eyes Softbank funding, and more
An overview of what's happening in Indian's unicorn space.
Healthtech unicorn PharmEasy to acquire a majority stake in Thyrocare
API Holdings Private Limited – the parent company of PharmEasy – is all set to acquire a 66.1% stake in Thyrocare Technologies for Rs 4,546 crore. This is the online pharmacy’s third acquisition after Ascent Health and Wellness and e-pharmacy company Medlife.
Moreover, this is reportedly the first-ever acquisition of a publically listed firm by an Indian unicorn.
PharmEasy plans to retain the Thyrocare brand – which is a B2B player with a channel-driven business. PharmEasy will provide the diagnostic chain with a B2C reach.
MindTickle is in funding talks with SoftBank
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm MindTickle is reportedly in advanced talks with Japanese investment company SoftBank for a $100 million round.
After the investment, MindTickle – a sales readiness platform founded in 2011 – will likely be valued at $1.1 billion, thus making it a part of the coveted unicorn club.
The company last raised $100 million led by SoftBank in November 2020. The company’s other investors include Norwest Venture Partners, Accel, New Enterprise Associates, Qualcomm Ventures and Canaan Partners.
InMobi’s Glance acquires Shop101
Glance – Content discovery platform and owner of short-video app Roposo – announced its acquisition of full-stack e-commerce firm Shop101 for an undisclosed amount in mid-June.
Glance, which became a unicorn in December 2020 after a $145 million investment from Google and Mithril Capital, is owned by mobile advertising platform InMobi.
With the takeover, the platform plans to Shop101’s e-commerce technology platform to foray into celebrity and influencer-led commerce.
India could have 150 unicorns by 2025
‘Turning Ideas into Gold’ – a report by 256 Network and Praxis Global Alliance India released in mid-June – stated that high net-worth individuals are expected to invest $30 billion in the country’s tech startups by 2025.
The report further states that by that year, 95 more tech companies could join the unicorn club. This would take the number of unicorns in India to 150.
As per the report, over 55,000 startups in the country raised more than $70 billion in funding between 2014 and 2020.
Amanat Khullar is the Content and Editorial Manager at ADIF.
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