PharmEasy is staring at hard times

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Editor's note: On Monday, Reuters reported that online drugs and medical services startup PharmEasy was looking to raise $200 million. What was disturbing was that the company was prepared to do it at a lower valuation than it last raised money at. That PharmEasy would want to raise $200 million was first reported in The Economic Times in May, when the company was in talks with Goldman Sachs to raise a debt of Rs 2,700 crore (about $340 million). The Reuters report said PharmEasy was open to offering a 15% or even 25% discount to last year's $5.1 billion valuation.  Clearly, PharmEasy’s story is beginning to look grimmer by the day and the contagion of poor IPO markets for startups is weighing down a business that looked great until a year ago. In November 2021, PharmEasy’s parent, API Holdings, filed its draft red herring prospectus with market regulator SEBI stating its intent to raise Rs 6,250 crore. Its claim to fame was that it was the biggest e-pharmacy business in the country, ahead of competitors like 1mg and Netmeds, which were later …