Med-x: Med-tech startup from Gwalior

Big dreams often start from by lanes of small cities. Med-x, a Gwalior-based medicine-delivery startup was born of the minds and hearts of three men Vishay Gupta, Dr Abhinav Sharma and Indroji Rao Kadam who chose medicine delivery, no longer a unique concept with a pretty clear vision “Entrepreneurs needn’t be the first. They just need to be better!”

The med-tech startup that was started in September 2015 has in six months expanded to five more Tier-2 cities processing 6,000 orders. Med-x delivers medicines on the same day (if ordered before 2 pm) and takes not only online orders but also over the phone. The company besides saving you time helps in fetching medicines that may not always be available at the nearest chemist.

This online medicine shop is a haven for ailing senior citizens living alone, single parents and those dependent on other family members for their medicines. Med-x also offers diagnostic services providing doorstep sample collection and report delivery for a discounted price from reputed labs in the city.

“Medicines can be expensive. We have tried to build efficiencies in our supply chain to ensure that the cost of purchasing and delivering the medicines remains low. Currently, we are giving away a 15 per cent discount on all medicines to our customers,” Vishay Gupta, Co-founder of Med-x spoke toYourStory.

The team has a simple revenue sharing model. They have tied up with chemists in each city and get a percentage of commission on each order from the chemists on the basis of sale value.

The USP of Med-x is that it caters not just to the tech-savvy smartphone users but also to the traditional types who love their old landlines or simple mobile phones. “The healthcare industry in India is expected to reach $280 billion by 2020. But if we contextualise this, medicines in India is a huge market with retail sales of more than Rs 10 crore in a town with a population of about 20 lakh people. In addition, since we have phone orders too, we can easily cater to the population that doesn’t use smartphones,” says 33-year-old Indroji Rao Kadam, who hails from one of the oldest Maratha families in Gwalior and is the director of Sumi Life Care – a Pharma CFA and distribution company.

Indroji sees Maratha warrior ChhatrapatiShivaji as his ideal, “ChhatrapatiShivaji was not only brave but also intuitive and often found unique ways to get out of difficult situations. Similarly, we can deal with customers intelligently by keeping them informed at all points, especially in the case of delays and non-availability. Then our customers understand and become flexible.”

Presently, Med-x has 2,500 customers and processed 6,000 orders with more than 50 per cent repeat orders. The startup adds one new centre each month. Apart from Gwalior, they now have their presence in Indore, Bhopal, Jammu, Jalandhar, and Lucknow, Med-x intends to keep focused on Tier-2 cities and plans to reach 20 cities by June 2016 and 40 cities by March 2017.