Sistema Asia Fund sells its stake in Netmeds, exit is part of RIL deal

The VC fund the move will fetch it attractive returns as the online pharma start-up grew 4x over past three years

Sistema Asia Fund has said that it has sold its stake in Netmeds. The deal is part of the transaction in which Reliance Retail Ventures Limited acquired the e-pharmacy start-up for around Rs 620 crore.

Sistema did not share any numbers on the company's investment in Netmeds and was silent about the stake it held and the returns.

Sistema Asia Fund is a venture capital fund sponsored by Sistema PJSFC, a publicly-traded diversified Russian holding company. 

In a statement, Sistema Asia Fund said it first invested in Netmeds in 2017 and that the exit will fetch attractive returns for it as as the online pharmaceutical start-up grew 4x over the past three years. 

The deal also marks Sistema’s second exit and monetisation, after it sold its stake in Qwikcilver in March 2019. The VC fund is in the process of doing a final close of its first fund this year at $120 million.   

The fund focuses on investing in technology-enabled, consumer and business-oriented start-ups in India and Southeast Asia - namely those with exceptional teams, global scaling potential and solid revenue streams.

“Sistema Asia Fund has strengthened the start-up’s leadership position in the burgeoning online pharmacy market by supporting the enhancement of supply chain and distribution network, and exploring the viability of international expansion. Also, Netmeds’ rapid growth over the past few years underlines our strategy of investing in companies with strong scaling potential and solid revenue streams, and the key to that is the constructive cooperation from Pradeep Dadha, founder of Netmeds, and the Netmeds team” said Andrey Terebenin, Managing Partner, Sistema Asia Capital. 

Terebenin added “Reliance’s backing of Netmeds is a strong endorsement of our investment philosophy, which is to optimise our investors' money into promising projects in India’s fast-growing technology market. We are confident that Reliance’s entry will accelerate Netmeds’ growth and help the startup establish itself as the leader in the online pharmacy sector. We want to wish Netmeds continued successful growth and realize its fullest potential with Reliance.”