HealthTech

A Rs 1,100 crore lesson: Has Flipkart's e-pharmacy foray hit a dead end?

Pratap Vikram Singh

October 28, 2024 | 10 Min Read

With Flipkart writing off its Rs 1,100 crore acquisition of e-pharmacy SastaSundar and Amazon also cooling on its e-pharma ambitions, India's e-pharmacy market shows that deep pockets and big plans are no guarantee of success in the hotly-contested and heavily-regulated space.

Key Takeaways

Just three years after acquiring SastaSundar’s e-pharma business for Rs 1,100 crore, Flipkart has written off the acquisition entirely
While it acquired the business to realise its e-pharma ambitions under the Flipkart Health+ brand, it appears to have lost its appetite for the business
The business has seen an exodus of top leaders, including its original CEO, with some of these being moved to other Flipkart products
While Amazon also had similar ambitions, it has also struggled to break the hold of incumbents like 1mg, PharmEasy, and Apollo 24/7 over the space

On 30 September, around two dozen executives at Flipkart Health+, the e-pharmacy vertical of Flipkart, served their last day at work. These were the second set of employees laid off from Flipkart Health+ this year, following a similar round of layoffs in March, The CapTable has learnt.

The firings indicate a marked shift in priorities for Flipkart, which dove into the e-pharma space during Covid with the acquisition of the e-pharmacy unit of Kolkata-based SastaSundar Ventures in 2021.

That acquisition cost Flipkart Rs 1,100 crore, according to regulatory filings, and came at a time when India’s healthtech space—fuelled by pandemic fears—was booming.

Indeed, in 2021 alone, India’s healthtech startups received $2.2 billion in VC funding, with e-pharma ventures accounting for a third of this funding. The same year birthed four healthtech unicorns—Innovaccer, PharmEasy, Curefit, and Pristyn Care.

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