Ratan Tata invests in 18-year-old's pharma startup, Generic Aadhaar

Tata Group chairman emeritus, Ratan Tata, has invested an undisclosed amount in Arjun Deshpande's pharmaceutical start-up 'Generic Aadhaar'. Deshpande, now 18, founded Generic Aadhaar in April 2019, intending to deliver quality medicine at affordable prices to masses.

It supplies generic drugs from reputed manufacturers at up to 80 per cent discount and other medicines are sold 20-30 per cent cheaper. Generic Aadhaar supplies diabetes and hypertension drugs at rates lower than the market price and has plans to offer cancer drugs are much lower rates soon.

The startup has tie-ups with 30 retailers across Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Odisha and has plans to increase this to 1,000 pharmacies on a franchise-based model. The startup will expand its reach in states like New Delhi, Gujarat, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Business Model

The Mumbai-based Generic Aadhaar follows a pharmacy-aggregator business model. The company sources generic drugs directly from the manufacturer and provide them to the retailers eliminating 16-20 per cent wholesale margins. The process helps the company to cut the middlemen engaged in the process, completely.

The company supports the pharmacies in the unorganized sector by providing IT infrastructure and branding to them.

Tie-ups

Generic Aadhaar has tied-up with four WHO-GMP certified manufacturers in Ahmedabad, Palghar, Pondicherry and Nagpur. This is the reason that it can sell the medicines at 20-30 per cent less price than the market price. The company claims to have annual revenue of Rs 6 crore and is looking at revenue of Rs 150-200 crore in the next three years, the company said this in a statement issued by its PR agency.

The company has employed 55 people including IT Engineers, pharmacists and marketing professionals.

Ratan Tata has so far invested hundreds of crores in over a dozen start-ups since his retirement from Tata Group in December 2012. His investments are routed through his investment company RNT Associates. Some of his investments include Paytm, Ola, Snapdeal, Urban Ladder, Avanti Finance and CureFit.

Arjun Deshpande

Arjun Pande, 18, alumni of DAV Public School, Thane. He started his entrepreneurial journey, when he was 16, to bring affordable medicines to the poor.