1mg moves into diagnostic space with acquisition of Medd

Bengaluru: Medd, an online platform for booking diagnostic and imaging tests has been taken over by Sequoia Capital backed online pharmacy 1mg. The take over was announced by 1mg CEO, Prashant Tandon who did not reveal the take over price or its structure. Diagnostics is a $5-8 billion industry in India, making up for 25% of the total pharmacy business

Talking about the dimensions of the health venture, Mr. Tandon said, Diagnostics spelt tremendous possibilities within e commerce as there are 100,000 diagnostic labs and very few large scale investors. He also spoke about lack of consumer satisfaction in this field in areas of advance bookings, and transparency in pricing across labs.

1mg got into the e-diagnostic online space last August but has only been limited to doing blood tests in collaboration with 15 chains including Thyrocare, Pathcare and US based Quest laboratories.

This acquisition will see 1mg entering the foray of offering services for booking of imaging tests such as X-rays, CT scans and MRIs.

Currently operating in 23 cities, the diagnostic space acquisition will see the company cover 30 cities within the country; hoping to grow its diagnostic contribution from 15% to 25%. The consumer call of Img is a 40-60% saving on lab tests through this platform.

Cofounded by IIT-Bombay graduates Arpit Kothari and Anurag Mundhada and Carnegie Mellon graduate Era Dwivedi in 2015, Medd, operates across Mumbai, Indore, Bhopal, Nagpur, Bengaluru and Jaipur. They have all joined 1mg to turn it into a successful venture.

The other new entrant into the business being Ankur Gigras, former Marketing Head for Gastroenterology, Abbott. Gigras, holds an MBA from Stanford GSB and BTech from IIT-Madras. He will be taking care of the diagnostic firm.