SwipeRx Closes Series B Funding of 396 Billion Rupiah, Ready to Accelerate Its Business in Indonesia

SwipeRx (formerly mClinica Pharmacy Solutions) announced a series B funding of $27 million or IDR 396 billion in equity and loans. The funding was led by MDI Ventures and participation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Johnson & Johnson Impact Ventures, Susquehanna International Group (SIG), and a number of past investors.

This release simultaneously confirms our news last December 2021. MDI itself has supported mClinica since their initial funding in 2014, then entered into follow-up funding in 2017. While the SwipeRx service has also debuted in Indonesia since 2017.

As stated by SwipeRx Founder & CEO Farouk Meralli, the fresh funds obtained will be used to accelerate their business growth in Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia. SwipeRx plans to expand its pharmacy network, expand health logistics services to meet B2B needs, and increase the number of new talents.

In addition, SwipeRx is also focused on expanding its community base and stock procurement solutions for pharmacies in Southeast Asia.

"We want to realize our vision of building the largest pharmaceutical network in Southeast Asia in recent years. This funding strengthens our commitment to disrupt and support the highly segmented pharmaceutical sector in order to improve public health services," said Meralli in an official statement.

Meanwhile, MDI Ventures CEO Donald Wihardja added that SwipeRx has great potential to be able to answer challenges in the pharmaceutical industry by connecting various entrepreneurs/pharmacies owners in one platform.

"Pharmaceutical companies can take advantage of the retail purchasing system, national standard logistics capacity, business financing options, and an integrated B2B platform as the advantages of SwipeRx services," he said.

SwipeRx is a Singapore-based pharmaceutical platform founded by Farouk Meralli, a veteran in the public health and pharmaceutical industry. With his experience, Meralli seeks to bring SwipeRx as an app all-in-one The largest B2B commerce and community of pharmacists in Southeast Asia.

SwipeRx brings features to increase pharmacy management capacity and make the road one way pintu for various purposes, from education, purchasing, to inventory financing. This service allows small pharmacy owners to increase the capacity, availability and affordability of drugs, to access business funding options.

Via forum online, SwipeRx users can connect to communicate with each other as well as obtain education and information about medicines through the platform. In addition, users can also join the purchasing network to procure pharmacy stock.

Pharmacy digitization

SwipeRx seeks to overcome challenges in the pharmaceutical industry, one of which is the fragmentation in which many small pharmacies have not yet been digitized and joined into a wider network.

Contacted DailySocial.id Separately, Farouk Meralli mentioned that digitalization in the pharmaceutical industry is needed to increase access healthcare to consumers, especially if you look at the scale of the market in Indonesia. In addition, the expansion channel on pharmaceutical products is important so that pharmacy owners can increase business scale and financial performance.

Currently, SwipeRx has recruited more than 235 professional pharmacist partners and partnered with 45 pharmacies in Southeast Asia. In Indonesia, SwipeRX has more than 8000 retail pharmacy partners. 5000 of them are recorded as having transacted on the B2B platform. Primarily, SwipeRx targets the pharmacy market (mom-and-pop stores) which operates in silos and has not been digitized.

"Indonesia is SwipeRx's largest market in Southeast Asia, where 70% of our total team comes from Indonesia. Currently, SwipeRx is experiencing rapid growth in Indonesia thanks to the acceleration in adding to the number of pharmacy partners. Our partners see the superior value of the solutions offered by SwipeRx and this can help them improve their business," said Meralli.

Furthermore, he ensured that SwipeRx cooperates with the Ministry of Health, BPOM, and state-owned pharmaceutical companies, including Biofarma, Indofarma, Kimia Farma, and Phapros to enable SwipeRx to strengthen its pharmaceutical ecosystem in Indonesia.