Biddano, a healthcare supply chain platform, plans to expand its reach to 52 cities by the end of the year, trebling its reach from 15 cities as an increasing number of pharmacies are looking to adopt online technology to solve last-mile distribution issues.
Over 100 Super-Stockists and 50,000 pharmacies were on board during the last calendar year, crossing the gross merchandise value of $100 million so far.
Biddano, a business-to-business model, was founded in 2016 by Talha Shaikh and Ashok Yadav. The company connects local super-stockists with pharmacies hospitals labs and fulfills orders in less than three hours.
The major challenge faced by pharmacists was the unavailability of products and unreliability in deliveries. They could rely on timely fulfilments because of Biddano. Co-founder Shaikh said that the main products that we use in healthcare supply chain are Bkart and Shortbuk.
Bkart, a tech-enabled healthcare logistics platform, reduces delivery turnaround time from 24 hours to under three hours. Shortbuk is a new age comprehensive daily procurement platform for fast-moving consumer goods and over-the- counter products.
The start-up uses a plug-and- expand model to help stockists manage their demand and supply while expanding their geographical reach. A credit line is being provided to pharmacies by partnering with non-banking finance companies or NBFCs.
Pharmacies have been at the forefront of the pandemic. Biddano wants to empower and impact every stakeholder in the healthcare supply chain with a razor-sharp focus on providing advanced tech systems and delivery infrastructure, which is the need of the hour, said Shaikh, whose sales return percentage has declined from 11 per cent to just 2 per cent.
In September 2021, the Pune-based firm raised $2 million from Gokul Rajaram, board member at Coinbase, Pinterest, JPIN Venture Catalysts UK and Livspace founder Ramakant Sharma, as well as existing investors Venture Catalysts and Firstcheque.