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PharmEasy raises fresh debt to clear Goldman Sachs loan after 90% valuation cut

EntrackrEntrackr · 1m ago
PharmEasy raises fresh debt to clear Goldman Sachs loan after 90% valuation cut
Medial

PharmEasy raises fresh debt to clear Goldman Sachs loan after 90% valuation cut Mumbai-based healthtech unicorn PharmEasy has raised Rs 1,700 crore ($193 million) in debt funding led by 360 One, with participation from Alkram Ventures, MVS Ventures, Bennett Coleman, and other investors. The debt round is the firm’s third infusion in four years, highlighting its ongoing dependence on high-cost borrowing to service earlier loans. The fresh debt infusion looks to complete repayment of its Goldman Sachs loan, which it had raised in May 2022 for Rs 2,700 crore at a high interest rate to refinance the Rs 2,200 crore Kotak Mahindra Bank loan used to acquire Thyrocare in 2021. The Goldman Sachs’ loan had certain financial conditions tied to the company’s spending, which were breached in June 2023, though PharmEasy has continued to make all payments on time. The 360 One-led debt round involves the allotment of 1,700 non-convertible debentures at Rs 10 lakh each, as per the filings with the Registrar of Companies. 360 One contributed Rs 1,231 crore, while Micro Labs Limited put in Rs 210 crore. MVS Ventures invested Rs 78 crore, with Bennett Coleman and Alkram Ventures contributing Rs 50 crore and Rs 42 crore, respectively. Eight other investors, including Kyrush Investments, Medley Pharmaceuticals, and Mahalaxmi Trust, covered the remaining sum. This fundraising follows a $216 million capital raise in April 2024, which came at a 90% valuation haircut to $710 million from PharmEasy’s $5.6 billion peak in 2021. That round, led by MEMG with participation from Prosus, Temasek, and others, was aimed at shoring up finances amid slowing growth and high debt obligations. Founded in 2019, PharmEasy offers pharmaceutical products, diagnostics, and teleconsultations through its web and mobile platforms. The company has now completed its third circle of debt, highlighting the ongoing challenge of balancing aggressive growth ambitions with high-cost leverage. Over the past two years, the company saw the exit of all co-founders and major changes at the leadership level, with Rahul Guha, MD and CEO of Thyrocare, taking over as MD and CEO of PharmEasy. For FY25, PharmEasy reported flat revenue of Rs 5,872 crore while cutting losses by 38% to Rs 1,572 crore from Rs 2,533 crore in FY24, signaling modest operational improvements even as debt obligations remain a critical focus.

XOBOX aims to tackle residential last-mile delivery hurdles

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
XOBOX aims to tackle residential last-mile delivery hurdles
Medial

Last-mile delivery hasn’t been perfect. Not that the likes of Dunzos of this world haven’t tried to address this. Recently, we saw Zomato experimenting with last-mile delivery through a unique concept of ‘walkers’ for corporate parks. Bengaluru-based XOBOX is one of the few startups that is trying to fix the last-mile delivery challenges especially for people living in urban areas. The company handles packages for residents in apartment complexes. Some of the features are securing the packages in smart lockers and dropping them to customers’ doorstep when they are back to their homes, and home delivery of essential items. We spoke to XOBOX founder and CEO Kiran Shivappa about his startup, what distinguishes it from the competition and the roadmap ahead. Here are the edited excerpts: How did you come up with this idea? I live in an apartment complex and even before the Covid deliveries were left scattered in front of the door and stray cats use to destroy especially milk packet which cause everyone to talk about it hours in community Whatsapp group, this made me think to find/adopt a solution to secure the deliveries when residents not able to receive it or may be they are not around. How does the platform work? Please help simplify the process. When we started the service, we started taking the request from residents to handle their packages and we coordinated with delivery guys to take the package, pay them if it is a COD [Cash on Delivery], and secure them in the locker until they come back, then we deliver it to their doorstep. We went one step ahead and made a contract with 3PL [Third-party logistics] and ecommerce companies to take every delivery coming to the society and our dedicated resources would hand them over to the residents, if the resident is not available then secure the package in the locker and hand it over once they come back. What are the key challenges in the industry that have not been addressed yet? And how do you plan to address them? Ecommerce companies have tried many solutions to optimize the last leg of the delivery process and achieved the Kirana model also, but they never got a chance to be inside the society exclusively and take care of the deliveries and achieve the customer delight to bring the most convenience to them in their package receiving time. We have dedicated resources inside each society to carefully handle the package and interact with residents and elderly people and become familiar to them so they feel comfortable to receive us at the doorstep at any time and feel secured as well. Industry major players tried to introduce the lockers but these lockers operate as a complete unmanned and fully automated, for this reason the adaptation was a big challenge and education was also a challenge. We adopted a 70/30 model where, way the lockers were built, operated and how people would feel easy to adopt this because the “30” percentage is the resources we introduced along with “70” percentage technology, our dedicated resource will work with all stake holders in the gated community to educate and make every one understand how to use the service. What are your short-term and long term goals in terms of product and business expansion and diversification? In the short term, we are looking to expand the service to 35 more gated communities in Bengaluru in 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2024 and then go to other cities. As far as long-term plans go, we are going to sign contracts with major ecommerce and 3PL companies to increase the volume in each society and serve the needs of elderly population in the community. We would want to reach 700-1000 gated communities and generate 150-180 cr annually.

Startups rope in new CEOs amid cash crunch, layoffs, profitability and IPO plans

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Startups rope in new CEOs amid cash crunch, layoffs, profitability and IPO plans
Medial

Management rejig and layoffs at several prominent startups have continued to make headlines this year. For layoffs, startups have cited a familiar reason i.e. redundancies, efficiencies as well as getting a step closer to profitability. As far as management changes go, reasons and circumstances vary. For instance, DealShare’s CEO position was vacant for a long time. These changes, however, also bring a fresh wave of optimism in the ecosystem, which has of late faced a host of challenges, ranging from funding crunch to stringent regulatory actions. Data compiled by TheKredible shows that this year more than 10 Indian startups have appointed, elevated or are on the verge of naming their new chief executive officers (CEOs). The list includes the likes of DealShare, MyGate, Inshorts, Cult.fit, Third Wave Coffee, Byju’s, Ola, PhonePe, and Setu, among others. Interestingly, half of them have been elevated to the role of chief executive whereas some founders took charge as the operational leaders after the exit of the existing CEO. [Elevated CEOs] The year 2024 started with a new trend of appointing new CEOs and e-commerce platform DealShare was first when they elevated Kamaldeep Singh as the new chief executive of the company from being the president of their retail business. The firm faced several challenges during the second half of 2023 as its three co-founders left the firm in a short span of time and it also had to shut down its B2B vertical after a flat growth in FY23 with rise in losses. Community management app MyGate, news aggregator InShorts and fitness tech firm Cult.fit also elevated Abhishek Kumar, Deepit Purkayastha and Naresh Krishnaswamy, respectively, as their new chief executive officers. All previous CEOs of these three companies namely Vijay Arisetty, Azhar Iqubal and Mukesh Bansal have now taken the role of chairman. Iqubal recently joined Shark Tank India season III as a judge. Also, InShorts is pivoting from news aggregation to influencer led platform which could be the reason behind this reshuffle in leadership. Cult.fit also faced challenges early this year as it fired more than 150 employees. As per the company, it reduced some redundant positions with the aim of streamlining operations. Meanwhile, fintech unicorn BharatPe finalized Nalin Negi as its full time CEO. Negi, the former chief financial officer of the company, had been working as interim CEO since January last year. Freshworks also went through a reshuffle as the firm’s founder Girish Mathrubootham stepped down from the position of CEO after 14 years. Mathrubootham has transitioned into the role of executive chairman while the company’s president Dennis Woodside has been elevated as the new CEO. Freshworks went public in September 2021. It’s important to note that most of these companies in this list had losses until FY23. Though, a few of them managed to control losses during the fiscal year. For context, DealShare’s GMV remained flat but its losses jumped 14% to Rs 502 crore in FY23. InShorts posted flat scale with 33.6% jump in losses to Rs 310 crore in FY23. MyGate, Cult.fit and BharatPe also managed to control its losses. Check the graph below for more details. [New CEOs appointed in 2024] In January, PhonePe announced the appointment of Ritesh Pai as CEO of its International Payments business while Infibeam Avenues announced the appointment of Rajesh Kumar SA as CEO of its AI business venture Phronetic.AI. These appointments appeared to be a positive sign for both companies which are expanding their businesses. Third Wave Coffee’s co-founder and CEO Sushant Goel stepped down as the firm’s chief executive role and transitioned to a board member in March this year. The WestBridge-backed company named KFC India and Nepal CEO Rajat Luthra as Goel’s replacement. Before the exit of Goel, Third Wave Coffee also went through layoffs, firing more than 100 employees. In April, Aakash Educational Services, owned by edtech company Byju’s, appointed Deepak Mehrotra as its new managing director and chief executive officer. Mehrotra joined Aakash after the exit of its chief executive Abhishek Maheshwari. Recently, the firm raised money from Manipal Group’s Ranjan Pai to clear the debt raised from Davidson Kempner in May last year. Aakash has plans for a public listing this year. Last month, API infrastructure company Setu, owned by Pine Labs, named Anand Raisinghani as new CEO of the company. Raisinghani will succeed Sahil Kini, who is the erstwhile chief executive of Setu. Earlier this month, Paytm Money’s CEO Varun Sridhar also quit the position and Rakesh Singh has been appointed as the new chief executive of the stock trading platform. Before joining Paytm Money, Singh was the CEO of fintech company Fisdom. On Monday, Adda247 appointed Bimaljeet Singh as its chief executive for skilling and higher education business. Like several edtech firms, Adda247 also went through layoffs in the last quarter of 2023. It’s worth noting that Paytm Money and Phronetic.AI are owned by public companies One97 Communications and Infibeam, respectively. In terms of financial performance, Aakash reported profit in FY22 and expected to replicate same growth in FY23. Pine Labs reported more than Rs 1,600 crore revenue with control in its losses to Rs 227 crore in FY23. Third Wave Coffee reported a three fold jump in its revenue with same growth in losses to Rs 54 crore in FY23. During FY23, PhonePe as a group posted revenue of Rs 2,914 crore and Rs 1,755 crore loss. During the period, Adda247 reported Rs 115 crore revenue and Rs 110 crore loss. [Founders, executives took the charge after CEOs exit] Last month, Arjun Mohan, the CEO of Byju’s India operations, stepped down from his position seven months after joining the edtech firm. After his exit, the company’s founder Byju Raveendran returned as the operational leader to see day-to-day functioning. During the process, Byju’s also sacked more than 500 employees. It’s worth highlighting that Byju’s has been facing a cash crunch for a long time and failed to pay the salary of its employees on time. Recently, Ola Cabs’ CEO Hemant Bakshi left the firm after three months of joining. His departure came at a time when Ola is gearing up for an initial public offering (IPO). The company also fired 10% of its total workforce. In the interim, Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal will oversee operations until a new executive is appointed. In January, Indus Appstore’s CEO Rakesh Deshmukh announced quitting the firm. Since then, the firm has been led by ⁠its CPO and co-founder Akash Dongre, and CBO Priya Meenakshi Narasimhan. The firm is yet to announce the name of the official CEO. As per a media report, Beardo’s CEO has gone on a year-long sabbatical from April this year. During his absence, CBO Siddharth Vaya, and Koteshwar LN, head of digital first business, are expected to lead the company. Beardo was acquired by Marico Group in June 2020. In the ongoing calendar year, Sukhleen Aneja, CEO of The Good Glamm D2C vertical and Subramanyam Reddy, CEO of upGrad’s Knowledgehut also announced their departure from the company. While Knowledgehut is yet to name the new CEO, The Good Glamm has decided not to appoint a new CEO for the D2C vertical. As per reports. Ketan Bhatia and Ankita Bhardwaj will lead the brand’s business operations. Last month, The Good Glamm Group resorted to layoffs and went through top level restructuring as it is gearing up for public listing. More recently, Paytm Payments Bank’s CEO and MD Surinder Chawla decided to hang up his boots. He will be relieved from his positions on June 26 while the firm is yet to announce his replacement. Public company Paytm laid off more than 1,000 employees in December 2023 in a cost cutting effort. As per reports, the firm also went through layoffs amid back to back departures of top level executives and the recent diktat by RBI. However, Paytm denied any fresh layoffs at the company. When it comes to financial performance, Byju’s and Ola are in deep losses and Beardo slipped into the red in FY23. Edtech unicorn upGrad reported close to Rs 1,200 crore revenue in FY23 with Rs 558 crore loss in FY23. Good Glamm Group is yet to file its annual financial report for FY23. [Conclusion] For those who have sniped at CEO salaries at startups, the last year should be a good indication of just why salaries refuse to moderate. Besides the high turnover, it is no secret that many investors and even founders have considered CEO’s as a horses for courses option, taking in people with specific skill sets when they were relevant for the organisation. Thus, be it fundraising, cost cutting, or all out for growth mindset, we have seen how different CEO’s bring their own competencies, which, unfortunately, have a use by date in most cases. Many of course can simply struggle to adapt to the startup culture and the unstructured challenges it throws up, which can be the worst outcome for a startup with little achieved during their tenures. Perhaps the toughest ask of a startup CEO is what she is expected to do in what seems like compressed time to most, making it most challenging to attract quality personnel at times. That is also one reason why we see investors take over the job of bringing in the CEO when they feel a founder needs to move on to a more strategic role or simply take a break from the intense pressure. Don’t expect the CEO churn to slow down anytime soon for these reasons.

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