Case study of 1mg

1. Case study of 1Mg Start-up
Introduction:
If We can shop for your clothes, food, and electronics online, why not the necessities like medicine?
That’s where 1mg, the Health Tech company, comes into the picture. It is an online marketplace of
medicines which deals with all types of medicines for the consumers. Medicines are provided at discount
rates to the customers through the mobile app or the website. it brings an online platform, which can be
accessed for all our health needs. They are trying to make healthcare a hassle-free experience for us.
Get your allopathic, ayurvedic, homeopathic medicines, vitamins & nutrition supplements and other
health-related products delivered at home. Now a days they also provide the Lab tests, online Doctor
consultation. Apart from the this, they also work with businesses to handle healthcare for their employees,
tie up with insurance companies to offer affordable care to patients, and provide online diagnostics and lot
more.
Today, 1mg provides a wide range of healthcare services. 1mg also provides information on medicines. It
facilitates lab tests at home. At present, the platform has about 2,000 tests and 120 verified labs listed
and users can consult a doctor across 20 specialties. The company earns from its services like
diagnostics, sale of medicines, preventive healthcare, and online consultations, as well as through native
ads on its platform.
Leadership
Prashant Tandon: (CEO & Co-Founder)
Gaurav Agarwal (CTO & Co-Founder)
Vikas Chauhan (Co-Founder)
Tanmay Saksena (COO)

2. Business Model:
The business model of an online pharmacy store focuses on making the consumer’s life much
easier by saving both time and money.
The online pharmacy store offers the consumer a variety of medicines against a prescription
provided to the customer by a registered medical practitioner. The consumer can also purchase OTC
(over-the-counter) medicines which do not require a prescription.
1mg makes money by charging a commission from the Partner Pharmacies they work with. The
commission is based on the nature and value of medicines sold via the platform. In each city, 1mg ties up
with multiple pharmacy partners and all orders in that particular city are assigned to these partners.
Selling medicines online has been a great challenge as this space witnessed regulatory
challenges time and again in 2019. While the Delhi High Court had ordered all state governments to ban
the online sale of medicines in January 2020.
Amidst this regulatory uncertainty, 1mg has demonstrated decent growth with a 2.8X jump in
operating revenue. Registering 180% growth, it has posted total operating revenue of Rs 240.85 crore.
The company collected Rs 39.45 Cr. from E-Pharma services while Rs 32.5 Cr. through online
diagnostics and Rs. 35.7 Cr. lab testing services in year ending March 2019. It also made Rs 0.67 Cr.
from collection charges.
Importantly, the overall revenue from services grew 281% from Rs 85..8 Cr. in FY18 to Rs 240.85
Cr. in FY19. All services together accounted for a little over one-third of the total revenues generated by
1mg during last fiscal

3. Media Ant:
About Advertising in 1mg, Website
Digital advertising in the 1mg, Website is one of the most popular advertising options. The
portals cater to the audience looking for content that would suit their product. Frequent content updates
on the portals keep the user engagement high. The content of the 1mg, Website attracts a high-quality
audience with good engagement and repeat visits. If you are looking to reach out to your audience
digitally, advertising on the 1mg, Website is a good option.
Marketing strategies:
1mg, an e-commerce healthcare start-up based in Gurgaon has come up with their very first
campaign – Grandmaster Series, which aims to praise unsung heroes in the field of medicine. The
company was formerly known as Healthkart.
 Online medicine business strategy: 1mg is an online medicine marketplace for
medicines Launched in 2013. The company sells all kind of medicines at the discounted rates
from its mobile application and Website. 1mg crossed more than 5 million app downloads and
more than 3 million monthly visitors over the platform. The website was started as HealthKartPlus
a platform for users to have all the information about the medicines. The platform became so
popular and got a huge response from the public and users asked the company to start the
delivery of the medicines too. Thus 1mg was started.
 Sehat ke Sathi - Program to Get Medicine Franchise at Low Cost: In our quest
to make healthcare accessible, understandable and affordable, we at 1mg are initiating an
affiliate business opportunity under the "Sehat Ke Saathi" program. The "Sehat Ke Saathi"
program is a franchise opportunity in pharma space where each "Saathi" is a lead generation
partner of 1mg and they would be responsible for empowering patients in their territory to
seamlessly access our best-in-class healthcare services. Till now, we have empowered more
than 100+ lead generation partners or "Saathis" to open a medicine business. We have
incentivized 100+ authorized lead generation partners or "Saathis" across India for helping us
penetrate advanced care in deeper pockets. As a "Sehat ka Saathi" you will be a part of a rapidly
growing healthcare startup in India. If you are someone who wants to start a new business at a
low cost, this initiative is for you.

4.  1mg's Brand Factor: 1mg is the largest healthcare startup in India with more than 25 million
delivered orders across 1000 plus cities in India. We at 1mg take utmost pride for being able to
become India's most loved healthcare platform through:
 Providing accurate, authoritative & trustworthy information on medicines and help people use
their medicines effectively and safely.
 Getting medicines and other health products delivered at home in 1000+ cities across India from
licensed and verified pharmacies at never before prices.
 Providing cost-effective and advanced diagnostic services from certified labs as well as online
doctor consults at any time, from anywhere.
 1mg is an initiative taken in the spirit of public service with a vision to empower Indian consumers
and caregivers to select the most appropriate healthcare provision at the best possible price.
 Marketing support for getting your entrepreneurial venture kick-started and establishing direct
connect with patients in your territory
 Continuous technical training and assistance to best leverage the platform for providing
impeccable patient experience
 1mg Launches the Grandmaster Series Campaign: The campaign, created and
executed by Humour Me, brings to the fore The Grandmasters i.e. the veteran medical
practitioners from various disciplines of medicine, who are still practicing medicine by living up to
the “Hippocratic Oath” and passionately providing service to the people.
The first video in the series features Dr. Anand, a paediatrician who continues to practice
in Mumbai at the age of 83. He is best known for his book on infant and toddler care, and for his
tireless promotion of the benefits of breastfeeding. He’s a strong proponent of the more natural
approach to childbirth and child-rearing. His kind demeanour can make even the most die-hard
formula-lovers feel comfortable under his care.
Dr. Anand strongly believes in his contribution to society, and offers his services for free
to the poor, armed forces, members of the fire brigade and emergency services, and teachers.
Speaking about the Grandmaster series, Mr. Prashant Tandon, Founder, HealthKart and
1mg said, “While dealing with healthcare, a consumer today often feels helpless. He/she is losing
faith in the system – the trust deficit has become significant and is a very unfortunate reality. At
1mg, we aspire to bring back faith in the institution of medicine. We believe in transparency,

5. patient-centricity and making a person feel comfortable and secure as she deals with the
healthcare system. As a part of this effort, today more than ever we need to showcase and
celebrate the best of our health system – and with the GrandMaster Series, 1mg salutes the
efforts of people like Dr. Anand who have selflessly worked with a single objective: the well-being
of his patients!”
Mr. Dhruv Sachdeva, Founder & Chief Creative at Humour Me, said, “The brand 1mg has
built itself on the foundation of winning the people’s trust. The thought behind this branding
initiative was to establish 1mg as the clear thought leader and a brand that stands for a much
larger vision. A vision of championing transparency and restoring faith in the institution of
medicine. Our aim was to move from the transactional to a position of emotional leadership by
connecting the brand 1mg to the idea that all it takes is 1 milligram of a step in the right direction
to start the healing process, and what better way than to pay tribute to the grandmasters of the
profession – the people who never tire or retire, and remain the true guardians of the Hippocratic
Oath.”
 1mg Campaign with VURoll: To utilize the power and potential of Influencer Marketing,
VURoll and 1MG came together to launch a campaign. The campaign was a huge success as the
audience awareness of the brand 1mg increased drastically.
Visionof Campaign:1mg’svisionwas to reach that market which was untapped, where
audience were not aware of the health benefits which the brand was providing. So,
VuRoll aligned 1mg’s requirement to generate ROI by introducing influencer based
creative on well know social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Main Spotlightof Campaign: The channel of communicationselected for this campaign
was FacebookandInstagramas theyare the mosteffective platformforproduct review
and feedback.Influencersusedthe productof 1mgand promotedthe healthbenefitsof
products.
VuRoll shortlistedthe bestsuitedinfluencerforthe brand from its vast category
of database of influencers.The shortlistedinfluencer where then segregated according
to the number of niche audience, choice of channel.
A total of 6 influencers were onboard for the project on the basis of their
engagementmetrics.Ourteamof experts designed the flow of campaign such that the
brand andthe productwouldgeta subtle mentionwhichwouldtriggertractionon their
Facebook and Instagram channel.

6. The final selected influencers were able to create insightful posts and stories
endorsing the product while also sharing their experience with the audience in a
relatable manner.
Showcasing a few influencer are like Mamta Dagar – 126K follower on
Instagram, Ashwani Neeraj – 89K follower on Instagram
Our viewers’ competition is great because the market is vast. It is fairly saturated and they
haven’tevenscratchedthe surface yet.As long as everybody is focused, there is enough in the market
for everybody. It’s too early to worry about the competition.
Challenges Faced:
Unclear regulations on e-pharmacies may hinder investments: E-pharmacies in India seem to
be on a roller-coaster ride. While the sector is witnessing a soaring customer base, the lack of
clearregulationsbythe government iscausinganxietyamongthe stakeholders.Onthe business
front,the e-pharmacy sectorisexpectedtogrow at an exponential CAGR of 63% and has nearly
30,000 skilled professionals employed in it.
Many brick and mortar stores have been opposing the move to allow pharmacies to sell
medicines online claiming that this can be misused.
In e-pharmacy, every single order is tracked, so everything goes with prescription, with full
compliance.Whileinthe offline market,which we are competing against, people can just walk
into a pharmacy and buy anything. In our case, compliance expectation is only from the e-
pharmacy.So, we wantequal compliance acrossall modesof pharmacyand soon. There should
be a requirement for offline pharmacies also to comply actively with what is the law.
Inter-State Sale ofDrugs: Rulesrelatedtoshippingmedicinesfromone state of Indiatoanother
aren’t clear. Every state has a Drug Department that grants license for certain medicines to be
soldwithinastate.There isa possibilitythat,certainmedicinesvalidinone state mightnothave
license inanother.7Hence,there is ambiguityregardingshippingof medicinesfromone state to
another.

7. Taking Money Prior to Delivery: There is ambiguity in the Indian law whether a pharmacy is
allowed to take money prior to delivery of medicines. Certain provisions of the law mandate,
moneytobe collectedfromthe customeronlyaftermedicinesare physicallyhandedovertothe
customer. The various payment options provided by the e-pharmacy websites such as Credit/
Debitpayment,paymentviamobile walletsetconplacingan orderwill surelyraise questions of
contravening the Rules as provided
Successive Factors:
Ever since 1mg was founded, they have been providing excellent service at the best prices for
theircustomers.Theyhave alsowon various well-deserving honors throughout these years. In
2014, just a year after they started off, 1mg won the m-billionth award for m-health in South
Asia. They were also recognized as the most promising health care startup by News Corp
VCCircle. In 2016, 1mg was acknowledged as the Best App in the medical category by Gmasa.
They also won the award for the best online pharmacy in India at the International Quality
Awards.Theyachievedthe title ‘New Kidonthe Block’atthe NDTV Unicorn Awards in the same
year. 1mg soon acquired Medd.in and the homeopathy medicine platform homeobuy.com.
1mg was recognized as one of the Top 50 ventures in the Smart CEO-Startup50 India 2017
program.By the year2017, theyhadgrown by600% in termsof the success of the app and user
engagement. They expanded their product range to encompass Ayurvedic medicines and
homeopathy.
Withinthe years 2016 and 2017, the companyhad raised 37 million dollars through 5 rounds of
funding.In2018, 1mg won the BML Munjal Awardfor ‘BusinessExcellence throughLearningand
Development’.Duringthe ContentLeadership awards in 2018, they won the title ‘Best Content
ina Healthcare/FitnessApp’.1mgwasalsorecognizedasthe Best Mobile Innovation for Health
award ‘ at the India Mobile Congress.

8. Conclusion: Pharmaceuticalsare verysensitive and need to be stored and tracked properly and on
an online marketplace like this, there needs to be a system in place to ensure the quality of the
medicines. 1mg has a system in place where they onboard vendors onto the platform if they meet
certainrequirementslikecomputerisedinventoryandinvoicing,whichmakesendtoendtrackingeasier
for the customer. The startup is able to generate business even after strict government compliances
which banned online pharmacies by making a prescription mandatory to make a purchase.
It is India’sleading digital healthcare platform. It has grown 600% in terms of app downloads and user
engagement over last year. Most users are from metro cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, Chandigarh,
Jaipur, etc.