PharmEasy still 92% below its peak $5.6 billion valuation, investor estimates

Indian online pharmacy startup PharmEasy, once valued at $5.6 billion, is still about 92% below its peak valuation, according to new estimates by its investor Janus Henderson.

According to the British-American global asset firm, which disclosed how it values its shares in the Indian startup in a securities filing, PharmEasy’s implied valuation at the end of June was about $458 million.

This comes as a surprise as PharmEasy in April said it had launched a rights issue to raise about $417 million. The rights issue, which allows existing investors to buy new shares in the firm at a much lower valuation, was oversubscribed, PharmEasy co-founder Dharmil Sheth said in a LinkedIn post.

A regulatory filing showed at the time that the startup had secured about $216 million. Some investors had started to cut the worth of their holdings in PharmEasy last year itself. The new valuation estimation suggests that PharmEasy is now worth less than the sum it paid to acquire diagnostic lab chain Thyrocare in 2021.

PharmEasy — backed by Temasek, TPG, B Capital and Prosus — didn’t respond to a request for comment. Janus declined to comment.

PharmEasy, which has raised about $1 billion to date, offers a range of services including tools and information on wellness, consultations, diagnostic and radiology tests, and treatment deliveries.

The once-flying startup had filed for an $843 million IPO in November 2021 but later deferred the plan. Instead, it sought to fund some of its fast-growth through debt. A $300 million loan it borrowed from Goldman Sachs ultimately proved costly to the firm as it struggled to repay the capital and raise new funds with equity after the market had turned.

“A lot has been written and a lot said about us. We generally don’t respond and believe in just doing what is right for the team, the shareholders and the company and just out-execute. It’s easier to write about companies as they are ‘entities at the end’. We tend to forget that at the end these entities are made by real people with real sweat, blood, tears and a lot more! Cheers to what the team did in the last one year > achieved the seemingly impossible,” PharmEasy’s Sheth wrote in the earlier LinkedIn post.

Many investors are marking down the worth of their startup holdings globally. 360 One, an investor in Indian news aggregator startup Dailyhunt, wrote in a note to its LPs recently that it values the Indian firm at $2.9 billion, down from about $5 billion earlier, TechCrunch reported last week.