Rx Is Going Online And On-Demand — 12 Companies Working In Prescription Drugs Distribution

Today, startups are changing the distribution patterns for everything we consume, from food to media, and now they’re doing the same in medicine.

While some companies like Zipdrug and Capsule are providing on-demand solutions for quick and convenient delivery of pharmaceutical drugs, others like PillPack act as pharmacists themselves and deliver drugs via mail in pre-proportioned packets (especially useful with complex drug cocktails). Others, like India-based Netmeds and China-based Kfyao, are working to improve drug distribution in emerging markets.

We used CB Insights data to identify 12 companies that are working to get prescription drugs into our hands with less friction and save us a trip to the physical pharmacy. These are 12 companies to watch in this space, in order of total disclosed equity funding received.

 1. Pillpack

PillPack fills, sorts, and delivers medications in personalized packets via mail based on when the medications are meant to be taken.

Total Disclosed Funding: $94.4M

Select Investors: Founder Collective, Accel Partners, Menlo Ventures

2. NetMeds

Netmeds is an online retailer of prescription medicines and other health products in India.

Total Disclosed Funding: $54.7M

Select Investors: OrbiMed Advisors, MAPE Advisory Group

3. Kfyao

Kfyao is a Beijing-based pharmacy O2O (online-to-offline) platform to order prescription medicines and other health products and have them delivered.

Total Disclosed Funding: $39M

Select Investors: Tiantu Capital, Unity Ventures

4. MedAvail

MedAvail is commercializing a self-service kiosk solution, the MedAvail MedCenter, for the dispensing of prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications.

Total Disclosed Funding: $30M

Select Investors: Deerfield Management, Redmile Group, Walgreens

5. Capsule

Capsule is a full-pharmacy offering 2-hour delivery of prescription meds.

Total Disclosed Funding: $20M

Select Investors: Thrive Capital

6. DeliverCareRx

DeliverCareRx facilitates patient compliance by providing home delivery of prescriptions and ongoing prescription refill management services to chronically ill, low income, case managed and managed care organization patients.

Total Disclosed Funding: $13M

Select Investors: Alerion Partners, Flare Capital Partners 

7. phil

phil is an online prescription management and delivery platform that partners with pharmacies. Phil enables users to place an order for one or more prescription medications and acts as a prescription management platform only.

Total Disclosed Funding: $7.1M

Select Investors: Eniac Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, SoftTech VC

8. Myra

Myra Medicines, founded in 2015, is an e-pharmacy in India that delivers users their prescriptions in under an hour. Myra is operated on a full-stack model (with its own warehouses and a drug license) in partnership with registered pharmacists.

Total Disclosed Funding: $7M

Select Investors: Matrix Partners India, The Times Group

9. Nurx

NURX prescribes and delivers medication entirely via telemedicine. The company is prescribing and delivering birth control, emergency contraceptives, and HIV prevention meds.

Total Disclosed Funding: $5.4M

Select Investors: Y Combinator, Union Square Ventures, Lowercase Capital

10. Zipdrug

Zipdrug offers medication delivery on-demand via app or phone.

Total Disclosed Funding: $2.6M

Select Investors: Compound, Collaborative Fund, Lux Capital

11. ScriptDrop

ScriptDrop is a prescription delivery service. The company sends a courier to pick up the delivery and tracks the delivery until the patient signs for it. The pharmacist can then view the signed delivery receipt in their ScriptDrop account.

Total Disclosed Funding: <$1M

Select Investors: N/A

12. Insightfil

Insightfil utilizes software, custom packaging, and mobile tools to make sure patients are receiving their medicines and adhering to their schedule.

Total Disclosed Funding: <$1M

Select Investors: MassChallenge

Want more info on companies working in the pharmacy space? Check out our venture capital database below.

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