LifCare raises $11 million to serve chronic patients

Healthcare startup Corner Store Technologies, which operates under the brand LifCare, has raised $11 million in its series B round of funding from SAIF Partners, Nexus Ventures, and IL&FS.

The funds raised will be utilised for expanding LifCare’s geographical presence and to invest in technology, the company said in a statementon Tuesday.

LifCare is a subscription pharmacy targeting patients with chronic illnesses. The Delhi-based company is active in north India, where it serves more than 3 lakh families who take medicine refills every 30-60 days. These patients, who have diabetes, cardiac conditions, hypertension, renal disorders, and thyroid, among others, require ongoing medication.

LifCare was founded in 2015 by Krishna Killa, who was earlier with Bain Capital PE, where he invested in healthcare and financial services; and Rohit Mohta, who was with Cipla, where he managed strategic initiatives.

“In the last two years, we’ve aimed to build a simpler and better pharmacy experience. We greatly value the confidence our investors have shown in our strategy and our commitment to build a sustainable subscription pharmacy,” said Krishna Killa, chief executive and co-founder of LifCare.

“With this round, we’re excited to expand our geographic footprint. We will also look to expand our suite of services to become a full-service disease management platform for chronic patients,” he added.

LifCare uses intelligent technology and data science to automate medicine refills so that patients never miss a dose. The company is also able to cut down the cost to end patients by running a more efficient supply chain, it claimed.

“By focussing on the patients’ need to manage their disease, LifCare is providing a unique value proposition in the medicine delivery market. We expect to see strong growth in the coming years,” said Sandeep Singhal, managing director and co-founder, Nexus Venture Partners.

In 2016, Corner Store had raised $1 million in a round led by angel investor Rajul Garg, along with others, including Kunal Shah, founder and former chief executive officer of Freecharge, and Alok Mittal, co-founder and chief executive of Indifi and former managing director of venture capital firm Cannan Partners, among others.

Nexus Venture Partners, which has nearly $1 billion under management and offices in the U.S. and India, invests in early and early growth stage companies. Its portfolio of companies includes the likes of cloud data protection and management firm Druva and Postman, which builds platforms for the development and management of application programming interfaces, among others.