Ascent Health in talks to raise $100 mn to move deeper into the pharmaceutical distribution space

Ascent Health and Wellness, the Mumbai-based offline pharmacy distributor, is in talks to raise $100 million in an equity financing round from Singapore-backed investment major Temasek Holdings. With the fund infusion, the company aims to propel deeper into the pharmaceutical distribution space.

The funding round is expected to value the pharma distributor firm at about $650-700 million. This will be one of the bulkiest funding rounds in the country’s online pharma space. 

This round will also see participation from online pharma retailer PharmEasy, CDPQ, and family-owned private banking and asset management group LGT. 

Ascent Health and Wellness was founded by Siddharth Shah, Hardik Dedhia and Harsh Parekh in 2013. It offers pharmaceutical companies with all channels of distribution counting retail and institutional, along with delegating as a vendor for the hospital chains.

The Mumbai-based firm has emerged to be the second-largest pharma distributor after Apollo. It claims to cater to around 20,000 retailers across India.