Tata Digital Shake-Up: BigBasket and 1mg Founders Step Back as New Leadership Takes Over

Tata Digital is undergoing a major leadership reset: BigBasket co-founders Hari Menon and Vipul Parekh are in the final stages of exiting, while 1mg’s Prashant Tandon and Gaurav Agarwal are weighing their future amid uncertainty over IPO timelines and shareholder exits, reported The Economic Times (ETtech), on April 3, 2026. This marks a decisive shift toward professionalized management under Tata Digital’s broader “super-app” strategy.

Key Developments

BigBasket

• Hari Menon (CEO) and Vipul Parekh (co-founder) are stepping back from operational roles.
• Tata Digital is actively searching for a professional CEO to lead the grocery platform.
• The company is pivoting aggressively into quick commerce, competing with Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy Instamart.
• Despite strong revenue growth, losses have widened as it plays catch-up in the instant delivery segment.

1mg (Tata 1mg)

• Founders Prashant Tandon and Gaurav Agarwal are reassessing their roles after five years with Tata.
• IPO plans remain uncertain, creating frustration among founders and other shareholders.
• Core operations have turned EBITDA positive, but fundraising challenges persist.

Tata Digital Strategy

• CEO Sajith Sivanandan is driving a profitability-first reset, emphasizing financial discipline.
• The exits are part of a professionalization push, moving away from founder-led operations.
• Tata Digital aims to consolidate its acquisitions (BigBasket, 1mg, Curefit) into a cohesive super-app ecosystem.

Comparison of Founder Exits

Company	Founders Exiting	Reason for Exit	Current Status	Strategic Challenge
BigBasket	Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh	Tata Digital wants a professional CEO	Transition plan underway	Late entry into quick commerce, rising losses
1mg	Prashant Tandon, Gaurav Agarwal	IPO uncertainty, unclear exit path	Founders evaluating next steps	Fundraising hurdles despite EBITDA-positive ops

Risks & Implications

• Leadership vacuum risks cultural disruption.
• Competitive pressure from entrenched rivals in quick commerce.
• Investor concerns over unclear IPO timelines.
• Execution risk in integrating diverse verticals into a super-app.

For India’s quick commerce and digital health sectors, these exits signal a maturing phase where Tata Digital prioritizes scale, profitability, and professional management over founder-driven growth. Expect more aggressive competition in India’s delivery market (Blinkit, Zepto, Instamart vs. BigBasket) and potential consolidation moves in digital health as 1mg recalibrates its IPO ambitions.
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1mg Gears Up to Fight Second COVID-19 Wave

Taking the surging COVID-19 cases in account, 1mg.com- India’s leading digital healthcare platform is gearing up to tackle the spread by providing a gamut of COVID-19 tests at home such as COVID-19 RT-PCR test, COVID antibody test as well as COVID home monitoring. 

1mg has partnered with ICMR approved labs to conduct these tests. They engage their trained phlebotomists who follow all the necessary protocols & precautions before and after home sample collection to ensure 100% hygiene & safety. To further restrict physical contact to a bare minimum, the test reports are shared online. Furthermore, 1mg also provides a free online doctor consultation post the test.

Talking about the services, Mr. Ankur Gigras, VP-Ecommerce at 1mg, said, “We cover most of the tier one and tier two cities across the length and breadth of India and maintain price parity with whatever the Govt has mandated in different states. We have come up with multiple innovative models since the start of the pandemic like mobile sample collection vans, hygienic sample collection booths, etc., and have also partnered with multiple Govt. authorities and non-profits to provide testing access to as many people as we can.”

The second wave of COVID-19 has hit several parts of India while some regions like Delhi are experiencing a third wave of the infection. As of today, India recorded 32,981 fresh Covid cases with 391 deaths in 24 hours. By offering its services online and at home, 1mg is ensuring that people don’t have to stand in long queues, waiting for their turn when they are sick. Through this service, multiple family members can get tested at once from the comfort & safety of their home. The tests can easily be pre-scheduled online or through a toll free number.

Dr. Varun Gupta, VP-Medical Affairs at 1mg, said, “People should test as soon as they develop symptoms but sometimes testing is delayed by 5-7 days due to widespread stigma of COVID-19. Early diagnosis will not only help prevent spread of infection but will also ensure early medical intervention and prevent COVID related complications.”

All of 1mg’s services can be availed through their website, app or through a phone call.

1mg Acquires Dawailelo to Strengthen Pharmacy Operations

1mg, India’s largest digital health platform, has announced that it has acquired Dawailelo.com, a technology-based facilitator in the healthcare space that helps individuals buy medicines, consult with doctors and get lab tests done.

“We are very keen on building a pan India presence rapidly. The team at Dawailelo has done a great job understanding the requirements of the customers and has created a unique model that has shown great promise for Tier II and III cities,” said Prashant Tandon, CEO, 1mg.

The team would be working with the 1mg ePharmacy team, reporting to COO Tanmay Saksena.

“With Dawailelo team on board, in the coming months we would expand our footprint to cover most parts of India”, said Tanmay.

Dawailelo was co-founded by duo- Aditya Agrawal (CEO) and Arpit Sarin (COO) in 2013. Agrawal has an MBA in marketing from Banaras Hindu University and co-founder Arpit Sarin has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.

According to Aditya, “We're looking forward to working with the 1mg team and establish an efficient and stable digital healthcare channel in the Tier II & Tier III towns of the country.” Arpit added, “It's a good time to work in collaboration with the 1mg team and consolidate our efforts towards the common goal of delivering best healthcare services to the people.”

1mg launched in 2015 and is India’s premier digital health platform with over 10 million app downloads. It is the trusted health partner for all Indians and its mission is to make healthcare accessible, understandable and affordable for a billion Indians. It enables consumers to learn more about their medicines and also find more cost-effective substitutes. Its diagnostics service brings transparency and price-effectiveness to lab tests. 1mg’s doctor platform aims to revolutionize how a consumer finds the right healthcare professional for his needs. 1mg is an initiative taken in the spirit of public service with a vision to empower Indian consumers and caregivers to select the most appropriate healthcare service at the best possible price.

In July 2017, 1mg closed a financing round of ~$15M, led by HBM Healthcare Investments with participation from other existing investors Maverick, Sequoia India, Omidyar & Kae Capital. The company had previously raised funding from Maverick Capital Ventures, HBM Healthcare Investments, Sequoia Capital India, Omidyar Network, Kae Capital etc.

Image : Prashant Tandon, CEO 1mg

1mg Acquires Dawailelo to Strengthen Pharmacy Operations

1mg, India’s largest digital health platform, has announced that it has acquired Dawailelo.com, a technology-based facilitator in the healthcare space that helps individuals buy medicines, consult with doctors and get lab tests done.

“We are very keen on building a pan India presence rapidly. The team at Dawailelo has done a great job understanding the requirements of the customers and has created a unique model that has shown great promise for Tier II and III cities,” said Prashant Tandon, CEO, 1mg.

The team would be working with the 1mg ePharmacy team, reporting to COO Tanmay Saksena.

“With Dawailelo team on board, in the coming months we would expand our footprint to cover most parts of India”, said Tanmay.

Dawailelo was co-founded by duo- Aditya Agrawal (CEO) and Arpit Sarin (COO) in 2013. Agrawal has an MBA in marketing from Banaras Hindu University and co-founder Arpit Sarin has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.

According to Aditya, “We're looking forward to working with the 1mg team and establish an efficient and stable digital healthcare channel in the Tier II & Tier III towns of the country.” Arpit added, “It's a good time to work in collaboration with the 1mg team and consolidate our efforts towards the common goal of delivering best healthcare services to the people.”

1mg launched in 2015 and is India’s premier digital health platform with over 10 million app downloads. It is the trusted health partner for all Indians and its mission is to make healthcare accessible, understandable and affordable for a billion Indians. It enables consumers to learn more about their medicines and also find more cost-effective substitutes. Its diagnostics service brings transparency and price-effectiveness to lab tests. 1mg’s doctor platform aims to revolutionize how a consumer finds the right healthcare professional for his needs. 1mg is an initiative taken in the spirit of public service with a vision to empower Indian consumers and caregivers to select the most appropriate healthcare service at the best possible price.

In July 2017, 1mg closed a financing round of ~$15M, led by HBM Healthcare Investments with participation from other existing investors Maverick, Sequoia India, Omidyar & Kae Capital. The company had previously raised funding from Maverick Capital Ventures, HBM Healthcare Investments, Sequoia Capital India, Omidyar Network, Kae Capital etc.

Image : Prashant Tandon, CEO 1mg

After BPOs Its Time For WPO (WhatsApp Process Outsourcing)

WhatsApp has engulfed the Indian subcontinent like no other nation. The messaging app hit 200 million monthly active users in India this February as the Facebook-owned service continues its dominance in developing markets. In fact, the service has become so popular in the country that for a majority of Indians WhatsApp is India’s internet.

While app store, mobile browser, Google Assistant, Siri, email, Dropbox, etc. are important too but when it comes to India, WhatsApp has acquired a unique status of its own.

According to experts, the app's group messaging capabilities, simple interface and the ability to share any kind of media anytime are few of the things that make the service such a hit among Indians.

Seeing the growing popularity of the app among its Indian users, WhatsApp is currently testing out a “WhatsApp for Business” platform custom built especially for Indian market. But, experts feel that this might just not be enough considering that India is more of a DIFM (do-it-for-me) market rather than a DIY (do-it-yourself) market. Even if WhatsApp does come out with a business platform of its own, its operation will more likely have to be carried out by agencies that provide WhatsApp marketing services to other businesses.

The low-cost customer acquisition tool has proved to be a great promotion tool in India. A living example of the success of the WhatsApp promotion trend is digital health start-up 1mg. Within just two years of its launch, the startup has garnered over 200 million users in India and more than 9 million downloads for its app, which helps users in researching prescription drugs and finding the lowest price possible. The best part of 1mg's success is that its founder Prashant Tandon has not spent a penny promoting his business and all these applaud worthy numbers are courtesy WhatsApp promotion (Read Here).

It seems, now is the right time to move away from the BPO trend and head towards a new one called WPO —WhatsApp Process Outsourcing.

WPO firms could be the next logical step fowler for SMS and email marketing agencies. The firms could engage with and respond to users directly, manage user databases tagged by interest, generate engaging creatives, and even become customer support channels.

For people looking for targeted marketing, they can make use of WhatsApp's true killer marketing feature-groups. WhatsApp groups are a perfect marriage of worth of mouth with ease of use and narrow targeting. In fact, WhatsApp promotion is also being used by Indian political parties in a big way nowadays to capture and retain vote-share by dominating mind-share.

Let's see how big does the WhatsApp trend become in India. Keep watching this space to keep a track of the same.

After BPOs Its Time For WPO (WhatsApp Process Outsourcing)

WhatsApp has engulfed the Indian subcontinent like no other nation. The messaging app hit 200 million monthly active users in India this February as the Facebook-owned service continues its dominance in developing markets. In fact, the service has become so popular in the country that for a majority of Indians WhatsApp is India’s internet.

While app store, mobile browser, Google Assistant, Siri, email, Dropbox, etc. are important too but when it comes to India, WhatsApp has acquired a unique status of its own.

According to experts, the app's group messaging capabilities, simple interface and the ability to share any kind of media anytime are few of the things that make the service such a hit among Indians.

Seeing the growing popularity of the app among its Indian users, WhatsApp is currently testing out a “WhatsApp for Business” platform custom built especially for Indian market. But, experts feel that this might just not be enough considering that India is more of a DIFM (do-it-for-me) market rather than a DIY (do-it-yourself) market. Even if WhatsApp does come out with a business platform of its own, its operation will more likely have to be carried out by agencies that provide WhatsApp marketing services to other businesses.

The low-cost customer acquisition tool has proved to be a great promotion tool in India. A living example of the success of the WhatsApp promotion trend is digital health start-up 1mg. Within just two years of its launch, the startup has garnered over 200 million users in India and more than 9 million downloads for its app, which helps users in researching prescription drugs and finding the lowest price possible. The best part of 1mg's success is that its founder Prashant Tandon has not spent a penny promoting his business and all these applaud worthy numbers are courtesy WhatsApp promotion (Read Here).

It seems, now is the right time to move away from the BPO trend and head towards a new one called WPO —WhatsApp Process Outsourcing.

WPO firms could be the next logical step fowler for SMS and email marketing agencies. The firms could engage with and respond to users directly, manage user databases tagged by interest, generate engaging creatives, and even become customer support channels.

For people looking for targeted marketing, they can make use of WhatsApp's true killer marketing feature-groups. WhatsApp groups are a perfect marriage of worth of mouth with ease of use and narrow targeting. In fact, WhatsApp promotion is also being used by Indian political parties in a big way nowadays to capture and retain vote-share by dominating mind-share.

Let's see how big does the WhatsApp trend become in India. Keep watching this space to keep a track of the same.

1mg Raises Additional $15M Funding Led by HBM Healthcare Investments With Participation from Existing Investors

1mg Technologies Pvt Ltd, India’s largest digital health platform which operates mobile app “1mg” on Android/ iOS and the web platform, today announced that it has closed a financing round of ~$15M, led by HBM Healthcare Investments with participation from other existing investors Maverick, Sequoia India, Omidyar & Kae Capital.

HBM had made its first investment in 1mg last year in May 2016, as a part of a top-up round following the Series B financing that was led by Maverick Capital Ventures.

HBM is among the global leaders in healthcare-focused investing with around USD 1.5 billion under management. HBM focuses on development stage, growth and buy-out financings of private companies, as well as investments in public companies.

Dr Andreas  Wicki, CEO of HBM Healthcare Investments said “1mg was HBM's first investment in a digital health platform in India and we are very encouraged about the prospects of the company given the tremendous progress across all dimensions over the last year. 1mg has cemented its clear market leadership in the Indian digital health space. HBM decided to lead the current round and double down on its investment in 1mg, pre-empting any need for the company to seek external capital and keeping the focus on continued growth. As a specialised healthcare investor, we have been monitoring the interesting impact that technology is having in the space of healthcare delivery. In our view 1mg has created a unique platform in one of the fastest growing markets in the world, and this platform can be the foundation of India’s leading healthcare services business in the years ahead. All companies in the healthcare domain are looking for innovative platforms to partner with to connect better with their consumers – very few platforms have managed to achieve the consumer engagement at scale like 1mg has done.”

Existing investors including Maverick Capital Ventures, Sequoia India, Omidyar Network & Kae Capital also participated in the financing round. Matthew Kinsella, Partner at Maverick commented “Digital health is coming of age globally, and Maverick is extremely excited by this space with over 30 investments. 1mg is clearly leading the charge in India, and Maverick along with the rest of the internal investors are keen to ensure the company has sufficient firepower to consolidate its leadership in this large market. This opportunity is a rare combination of being part of a venture that has leadership in the right market, at the right time, and with the right team to build a solid business.”

Prashant Tandon, CEO & co-founder 1mg said, “I am really glad that our investors have chosen to re-affirm their faith in the potential of 1mg. We are truly excited by the opportunity to make a meaningful impact on how healthcare is delivered in India, and we believe that we are on the right path. Making healthcare transparent, understandable, accessible and affordable for consumers is a very important need of the ecosystem and also a huge opportunity to build a strong and sustainable business. Healthcare in India is going through profound changes, and we aspire to be the trusted partner of consumers as they navigate this space.”

The company has previously raised funding from Maverick Capital Ventures, HBM Healthcare Investments, Sequoia Capital India, Omidyar Network, Kae Capital etc.

1mg Raises Additional $15M Funding Led by HBM Healthcare Investments With Participation from Existing Investors

1mg Technologies Pvt Ltd, India’s largest digital health platform which operates mobile app “1mg” on Android/ iOS and the web platform, today announced that it has closed a financing round of ~$15M, led by HBM Healthcare Investments with participation from other existing investors Maverick, Sequoia India, Omidyar & Kae Capital.

HBM had made its first investment in 1mg last year in May 2016, as a part of a top-up round following the Series B financing that was led by Maverick Capital Ventures.

HBM is among the global leaders in healthcare-focused investing with around USD 1.5 billion under management. HBM focuses on development stage, growth and buy-out financings of private companies, as well as investments in public companies.

Dr Andreas  Wicki, CEO of HBM Healthcare Investments said “1mg was HBM's first investment in a digital health platform in India and we are very encouraged about the prospects of the company given the tremendous progress across all dimensions over the last year. 1mg has cemented its clear market leadership in the Indian digital health space. HBM decided to lead the current round and double down on its investment in 1mg, pre-empting any need for the company to seek external capital and keeping the focus on continued growth. As a specialised healthcare investor, we have been monitoring the interesting impact that technology is having in the space of healthcare delivery. In our view 1mg has created a unique platform in one of the fastest growing markets in the world, and this platform can be the foundation of India’s leading healthcare services business in the years ahead. All companies in the healthcare domain are looking for innovative platforms to partner with to connect better with their consumers – very few platforms have managed to achieve the consumer engagement at scale like 1mg has done.”

Existing investors including Maverick Capital Ventures, Sequoia India, Omidyar Network & Kae Capital also participated in the financing round. Matthew Kinsella, Partner at Maverick commented “Digital health is coming of age globally, and Maverick is extremely excited by this space with over 30 investments. 1mg is clearly leading the charge in India, and Maverick along with the rest of the internal investors are keen to ensure the company has sufficient firepower to consolidate its leadership in this large market. This opportunity is a rare combination of being part of a venture that has leadership in the right market, at the right time, and with the right team to build a solid business.”

Prashant Tandon, CEO & co-founder 1mg said, “I am really glad that our investors have chosen to re-affirm their faith in the potential of 1mg. We are truly excited by the opportunity to make a meaningful impact on how healthcare is delivered in India, and we believe that we are on the right path. Making healthcare transparent, understandable, accessible and affordable for consumers is a very important need of the ecosystem and also a huge opportunity to build a strong and sustainable business. Healthcare in India is going through profound changes, and we aspire to be the trusted partner of consumers as they navigate this space.”

The company has previously raised funding from Maverick Capital Ventures, HBM Healthcare Investments, Sequoia Capital India, Omidyar Network, Kae Capital etc.

How This Heath-Tech Startup Reached 9 Million Users Without Spending A Dime

Social networking giant Facebook is the number one choice for emerging brands in the United States to get the word out for their brands and reach out to customers. However, in India, Facebook is proving to be a costly option for startups and they are now turning to a service that is much more personal and costs almost nothing—WhatsApp.

A living example of the success of the WhatsApp promotion trend in India is digital health start-up 1mg. Within just two years of its launch, the startup has garnered more than 9 million downloads for its app, which helps users in researching prescription drugs and finding the lowest price possible. The best part of 1mg's success is that its founders have not spent a penny promoting his business and all these applaud worthy numbers are courtesy WhatsApp promotion.

According to Mary Meeker's annual Internet Trends report for the year 2017, WhatsApp is the most popular Android app in India, followed by Facebook Messenger at number two and the core Facebook service at number five.

1mg's success story began when one of its users drafted a long WhatsApp message about the app's benefits and the message instantly went viral with hundreds of people sharing it. According to its co-founder Prashant Tandon, a Stanford Business School graduate, his company has spent no money whatsoever in marketing in reaching where they're today.

Tandon returned to his home country India in 2009 with an aim of building digital tools for the country's health care system, which was flailing back then. This vigour to do something for Indian healthcare system gave birth to Tandon's first entrepreneurial venture, HealthKart, which is into selling health and wellness products online in the country. During his time at HealthKart, he realised the big price differential between the various generic medicines in the country and decided to do something about the situation, and this is how 1mg came into existence.

Tandon had a foresight that 1mg would be a success in the country as unlike many other countries in the world where insurance covers the medicine expense, people in India still buy their medicines from their own pocket. However, he didn't expect 1mg to become this big a success this soon.

The startup, which has Silicon Valley's technology investors like Maverick Capital, Sequoia Capital and Omidyar Network in its kitty, allows consumers to buy prescription drugs, order diagnostic tests and consult with a physician online. A consumer can even upload a prescription to the app via a smartphone photo, and the medicine will be delivered straight to the user's doorstep. The model has proven to be a major success in the rural pockets of the country with little access to doctors and pharmacies.

The power of WhatsApp has made 1mg one of the largest digital health companies in the country with 65 million page views per month.

It seems, Mark Zuckerberg's gamble of buying WhatsApp for a whopping $19 billion in 2014 is paying out well. While back then people were a little skeptical about why the social networking pioneer would shell out such an amount for a popular messaging service that generated almost no revenue, but it seems Zuckerberg had it under control all this time. According to Pacific Crest Securities, in the near future, each active WhatsApp user could produce at least $2 of revenue per month.

1mg Acquires MediAngels to Strengthen Its Position in the eHealth Space in India

1mg, India’s largest digital health platform, has announced the acquisition of MediAngels to strengthen its position in the eHealth space in India. With this acquisition, 1mg is entering the space of super speciality consultations, corporate health services and insurance partnerships, which MediAngels had been building over the last 4 years.

“With MediAngels platform and team on board, our offering set is significantly enhanced. Our consumers can now access a deep network of over 450 super specialists across India and the world, and we also get an entry into the corporate health space through this platform. We now offer a comprehensive suite of services to consumers as well as corporate customers which includes ePharmacy, eDiagnostics, eConsultations and Super Speciality Second Opinions as well. Dr Arbinder Singal, co-founder of MediAngels is helping us build and deliver the best in class second opinion service. We are now servicing the entire 360 degree healthcare value chain for our consumers. We are committed to make 1mg the one destination for all health needs and are really excited to achieve another milestone in that journey," says Prashant Tandon (CEO, 1mg).

MediAngels.com was set up in 2011 to bring topmost super-specialist doctors within everyone’s reach using technology. The founding team included Dr Arbinder Singal and Dr Debraj Shome, both themselves super specialist doctors. Dr Arbinder Singal is a Pediatric urologist with international fame and has served as the director for last year, and he led the B2B channel development for the business.

With more than 450 super specialist doctor strong team across 93 specialties, MediAngels has seen good number of cases in cardiology, cancers, neurosurgery, orthopedics and pediatric subspecialties and traction from both - metros and tier 2 cities.

With rising healthcare costs and higher percentage of people under insurance coverage, the enterprises saw it fit to take second opinion at MediAngels for auditing and understanding if surgery/ hospitalisation is required. A recent collaborative study by MediAngels and a major private health insurer for knee replacement surgeries across India found that 18% of the knee replacements were either not needed or could have waited before surgery was the only option left. In such cases, patient is happy avoiding pain of surgery and enterprise as a payer saves money. While the money savings was huge, it also built a lot of trust for the consumers. The company already has a backing of most top insurers and several corporates who have enrolled for the service for second opinions and employee health benefits.

Dr Arbinder Singal, founder of MediAngels added, “We started MediAngels.com to make doctors like ourselves available without the limit of distance and the journey so far has been very good. With rapid adoption of technology and web on mobile, the time is right for eHealth platforms to serve the basic need of every Indian- complete the cycle of healthcare for the consumer at a click. Within 1mg ecosystem, we plan to scale up second opinions and drive B2B engagements with more insurers and corporates. Our robust technology tools will help them optimise employee benefits spends on healthcare and to have a healthier workforce. We see a great future ahead with this union and we will aim to become accepted as the top most eHealth platform in India by bringing the best of medical brains and technology together on one platform.”

1mg Doubles Down on Diagnostics - Acquires Medd.in and Brings Ankur Gigras on Board

India’s premier digital health destination 1mg has acquired Medd.in, a platform that operates a marketplace for booking diagnostic & imaging tests. The deal size and structure have not been disclosed. Medd.in was co-founded by IIT Bombay graduates Arpit Kothari and Anurag Mundhada and Carnegie Mellon graduate Era Dwivedi in 2015, who have now joined the 1mg team. Medd operates across Mumbai, Indore, Bhopal, Nagpur, Bangalore and Jaipur.

“With this acquisition, we are accelerating our drive to provide best healthcare to our customers,” said Prashant Tandon, CEO 1mg. “Together with Medd, we see a unique opportunity to amplify our leadership position and enter new geographies as well as the Radiology segment”

“We are looking forward to working as a part of the team at 1mg and leveraging the scale of the platform to build on our vision to simplify and make high quality diagnostic services affordable to all” said Arpit, co-founder and CEO Medd.  “Medd is a splendid solution to a serious pain point. I congratulate the folks at 1mg for picking up this great asset. Both are stronger as a result of this acquisition.” - Ajeet Khurana, investor in Medd

The e-diagnostic service of 1mg is currently available across 23 cities, powered by tie ups with top-quality certified laboratories. Users book an appointment for at-home sample collection and receive their test results online with the added option of receiving a paper copy. By using the 1mg platform, users can make savings of 40-60% on their lab tests requirements.

Additionally, 1mg has brought on-board Ankur Gigras, former Marketing Head for Gastroenterology at Abbott. Ankur will be responsible for overseeing the Diagnostics Business and additionally drive innovative patient centric models with Pharma, Insurance and the rest of the healthcare ecosystem. Ankur holds an MBA from Stanford GSB & B-Tech from IIT, Madras. He has worked with McKinsey, Investment Bank William Blair and Abbott Nutrition (where he helped executing their growth strategy in India) in the past.

"Over the last few months, we have been extremely focused on strengthening our team and capabilities. We are delighted to get quality talent like Ankur, Arpit and Anurag on-board as they come with a set of business and healthcare experiences that are valuable at this juncture of our growth. Their addition is going to give a solid impetus to drive the creation of India's next generation diagnostics business” said Prashant

On his move to 1mg, Ankur shared “I believe 1mg has created an exceptional platform which is engaging consumers at scale in a very unique way. This platform opens up tremendous opportunities to change the way healthcare works - the direct connect with the patients makes the creation of "patient centric" models a reality; something that has been always discussed across the ecosystem, but could never get off the ground. I think 1mg will materially change how a consumer experiences healthcare, they have the best in class team and I am really excited to hop on board".

1mg plans to grow rapidly with the goal of becoming India’s largest platform for health services. “We believe given the fragmentation of the industry, the largest platforms will be digital marketplaces as India leapfrogs brick-and-mortar based retail” Tandon adds.

In May, the company had appointed former Zomato senior executive Tanmay Saksena as its Chief Operating Officer and also raised an additional investment from HBM as a further addition to its recently closed Series B financing.

1mg Attracts Top Global Healthcare Investor HBM Healthcare Investments (HBM) in Additional Funding

1mg Technologies Pvt Ltd, Indian digital health platform which runs mobile app “1mg” on Android/ iOS and the web platform, today announced an additional investment from HBM as a further addition to its recently closed Series B financing. HBM is among the global leaders in healthcare-focused investing with around $1 billion under management. HBM focuses on development stage, growth and buy-out financings of private companies as well as investments in public companies. This is HBM’s first direct investment in a digital health company in this region.

Prashant Tandon, Founder 1mg said, “We are thrilled to have an investor with the domain expertise and quality of HBM to partner with us. At this key stage of our growth, we are in good shape with a high quality team in place and our business backed by the best investors in the business across technology, healthcare and digital health. I believe we have the opportunity to transform healthcare in India and make it better for all consumers. With over 75 Million annual visits on our platform already, we have a very good shot at changing healthcare for consumers at scale in India.”

According to Dr Andreas Wicki, CEO, HBM Healthcare Investments, “As a focused investor in healthcare, we have been monitoring the interesting impact that technology is having in the space of healthcare delivery. We believe 1mg has created a unique platform in one of the fastest growing markets in the world, and this platform can be the foundation of India’s leading healthcare services business in the years ahead. All companies in the healthcare domain are looking for innovative platforms to partner with to connect better with their consumers – very few platforms have managed to achieve the consumer engagement at scale like 1mg has done.”

The company has previously raised funding from Maverick Capital Ventures, Sequoia India, Omidyar Network, Kae Capital and Intel Capital.

1mg Appoints Former Zomato Senior Executive Tanmay Saksena as COO

Gurgaon-based healthcare startup 1mg has appointed former Zomato senior executive Tanmay Saksena as its Chief Operating Officer. Saksena holds an MBA from Stanford University and a B-Tech from IIT, Kanpur. Previously as Zomato's Global Business Head, Tanmay setup Zomato as the leader in online food ordering across India, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Manila.

Before Zomato, Tanmay was in the Silicon Valley for almost a decade where he worked with a rapidly growing technology startup Playdom that was acquired by the Walt Disney Company. As VP of Studio Operations at Disney Interactive Media Group in Palo Alto, Tanmay ran the largest gaming studio and led the launch of multiple blockbuster online games. In the past, Tanmay has also worked at Unilever India managing operations before heading to Stanford for his MBA.

1mg is India’s largest e-pharmacy and e-diagnostic network. It has over 5 million organic app downloads and 25 million monthly page views coming from 2 million unique consumers who use its services every month. It has recently raised $16 million in Series B led by Maverick Capital Ventures, with participation from existing investors Sequoia India and Omidiyar Network.

On joining 1mg, Tanmay Saksena adds "1mg has potential to massively disrupt healthcare in India. 1mg with its solid team and leadership position is well poised to become India's leading healthcare business. I believe that the opportunity to build out the new model for healthcare delivery in India is a very compelling and worthwhile challenge. I am really excited to be a part of Team 1mg."