Business tycoon and chairman emeritus at Tata Sons, Ratan Tata, on Thursday, picked up 50 percent stakes of a start-up by a Mumbai-based 18-year-old entrepreneur, who started his business two years ago with funding from his parents. The head honcho of the Tata group invested an undisclosed amount in Arjun Deshpande's 'Generic Aadhar', a unique pharmacy retail chain, which is different from various other online pharmacies and apps available on the internet.
What is Generic Aadhar?
Based on a unique pharmacy-aggregator business model, Generic Aadhar sources generic drugs directly from manufacturers to the pharmacies across various cities. The company provides medicines at much cheaper rates than the market price by eliminating 16-20 per cent wholesaler margin. As of now, the start-up claims to have annual revenue of Rs 6 crore. Deshpande is aiming at a revenue of Rs 150-200 crore in the next three years.
Generic Aadhar aims to bring affordable medicines to the masses, has already tied up with 30 retailers from Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Odisha following a profit-sharing model.
The company has currently employed 55 people which include pharmacists, IT engineers, and marketing professionals. The company mainly supplies diabetes and hypertension drugs but will soon start offering cancer drugs at much lower rates than the market price.
Ratan Tata's collaboration with Generic Aadhar:
The 18-year-old CEO said that he proposed the idea of his start-up 3-4 months ago to Ratan Tata and he keenly listened to it. Deshpande told Business Today, "When Sir Ratan Tata came to know about the business plan, he was impressed and decided to be a part of this mission in a personal capacity and help Generic Aadhaar to reach every Indian."
As per Business Today's sources, Ratan Tata has made the investment on a personal level and it is not linked to the Tata Group.
Generic Aadhar's future plans:
The teenager from Mumbai plans to partner with 1,000 pharmacies on a franchisee-based model and expand his reach to cities like Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and New Delhi. The company is planning to bring IT infrastructure and branding to the forefront and provide support to the unorganized sector by bringing the right technology.
"Our unique business model gives us an edge over any other players in the market currently as we aim to bring affordable healthcare to millions of households. Our mission is to provide senior citizens and pension holders the care they deserve with our idea of delivering inexpensive medicines which are required on a daily basis," said Deshpande.
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