API Holdings, which operates the giant healthcare startup PharmEasy, said on Friday it has reached an agreement to acquire a 66.1% stake in Thyrocare, which runs a diagnostic lab chain, for about $613 million in what is the first ever acquisition of a listed firm by an unicorn startup in the world’s second most populated nation.

The transaction is subject to regulatory and other applicable customary approvals. Docon Technologies, a 100% subsidiary of API, will be the acquirer and shall make an open offer for an additional 26% stake for over $241 million, the startup said in a statement.

It’s a complex transaction. In a filing (PDF) to a local exchange, Thyrocare has disclosed that API Holdings intends to raise another financing round, where it may sell about 4.9% stake to Dr A. Veluman, a promoter of Thyrocare, for about $202 million. This will imply a valuation of over $4 billion for the startup.

PharmEasy, the only healthcare unicorn startup in India, is the nation’s largest online pharmacy and diagnostics brand. It operates a business-to-business pharma marketplace with over 6,000 consultation clinics with 90,000 partner retailers across the South Asian nation.

The five-year-old startup, which has raised about $572 million to date and was last valued at $1.5 billion, counts Prosus Ventures, Temasek, Eight Roads Ventures, TPG, B Capital Group, and Bessemer Venture Partners among its investors.

Thyrocare is India’s largest diagnostics solution provider by volume (it performs over 110 million tests in a year). The 26-year-old firm also operates (Read more...)