SwipeRx receives $27 million of funding MDI as well as the Gates Foundation to digitise the industry of pharma within Southeast Asia SwipeRx is a platform designed for pharma professionals, announced Tuesday that it was awarded an investment of $27 million in a Series B round led Indonesia’s MDI Ventures which includes participants from Gates Foundation, Johnson & Johnson Impact Ventures, Susquehanna International Group and other existing supporters
Pharmacies located in Southeast Asia were largely fragmented, small-scale, family-owned shops operating in silos before the company, originally named mClinica, was established in Singapore in 2014. The region was witness to “lots of patient-centered innovation thanks to the rise of telemedicine applications and advancements for doctors, however, the pharmacist and their workforce were not adequately addressed,” SwipeRx CEO Farouk Meralli stated.
According to him, SwipeRx has transformed and digitalized the industry of pharmacy and has become a single-stop solution for pharmacists to complete their routine tasks, from education to buying inventory to financing their inventory across Southeast Asia.
In terms of education The company offers online accredited training and information on drugs, including postings for jobs, discussion boards, and anything else the pharmacists’ community requires to grow professionally and better serve patients.
In this regard, the SwipeRx application allows users to stay up to date with the most recent healthcare and drug information, as well as access educational ongoing professional development (CPD) modules that are required in a number of Southeast Asian countries.(Meralli affirms that SwipeRx is the most prominent regional supplier of online-based accredited training for pharmacists, actually.)
The app can also help pharmacists find opportunities to work in the field or make job postings. Similar to LinkedIn, it also allows users who aren’t in the process of changing jobs to broaden their networks through connecting with their colleagues in the pharmacy. Meralli said to TechCrunch that it’s easier to imagine that SwipeRx is an app that’s like LinkedIn meets Amazon for pharmacies.
Concerning its purchasing power, Meralli stated that by forming a single large purchase network of enormous scale, the company was able to negotiate better prices while also launching B2B commerce within the same application.SwipeRX’s model of community-driven commerce allows small pharmacies to gain the benefits of the network’s broad reach by gaining access to the lowest prices and making sure that the medicines are readily available to their customers and patients, according to him.
As per the firm, SwipeRX is planning to utilise the new capital to expand its expansion across Southeast Asia, expand its logistics system for B2B online commerce, and grow its workforce.
SwipeRx, which raised $6.3 million in Series A funding last year, is certainly gaining the kind of momentum that investors value.
The 400-member group states that it has more than 235,000 pharmacists, and 45,000 pharmacies have access to the app across Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia.
It also states that more than 88,000 pharmacy stores exist in Indonesia alone, which accounts for around 25 percent of all pharmacies registered on SwipeRx, with more than 5,000 people joining its online purchasing network and transacting through the B2B marketplace.
“Our expansion as a business has been rapid, and the last few years have helped us further our goals to create the largest network of pharmacies within the area,” Meralli told TechCrunch”This round of funding reaffirms our determination to reform the market’s fragmentation and improve public health by helping pharmacists working in this channel.”
Adds Donald Wihardja, CEO of MDI Ventures: “We see the potential for great growth and potential in the SwipeRx platform in its efforts to tackle the problems facing pharmacies, specifically in Indonesia, through the connection of different players, small and large, all on one platform.”
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