Bangladeshi healthtech startup Arogga has closed a round of seed funding with participation from Hyper, Ratio Ventures, Sketchnote Partners, SRB Ventures, IDLC, Demand Curve’s CEO Julian Shapiro, and other Silicon Valley super angels.
The round brings total financing raised by Arogga to date to $1.6million, according to a press release.
Alongside the foreign investors in this round, Arogga also secured investment from local Bangladeshi VC IDLC.
Samad Miraly, Partner at IDLC VC Fund I, said:“We’re excited to support the growth of Arogga and healthtech in Bangladesh. As a local institutional VC, we aim to unlock value for Arogga beyond capital in this financing round to help it grow into the important company we know it can become. We hope this is just the beginning with this exciting company and team.”
Co-founded by Fahad Hossain, Rosina Mazumder, Shamim Hasan and Yawar Mehboob in 2020, Arogga is the leading medicine delivery app that’s disrupting the healthcare market in Bangladesh.
The Arogga app and web solution allow customers to simply upload their prescriptions, and the medicines are delivered directly to their door.
All medicines are available at the cheapest possible price, thus making it affordable for everyone.
The South Asian region has created several unicorns in the healthtech space, and Arogga hopes to follow in their footsteps. Badged by investors as the ‘PharmEasy of Bangladesh’, the co-founding team are excited to build the next phase for Arogga.
With over 20% of medicine in Bangladesh being counterfeit, Arogga ensures authentic supply sourced directly from the manufacturers.
In just a short 12 months, Arogga has seen 30% month-on-month growth, and has grown GMV by 24 times.
Silicon Valley’s Hyper is a new kind of venture firm and founder program, inspired by the Product Hunt community, and backed by industry-leading partners like Andreessen Horowitzand Sequoia Capital.
Being very selective in the start-ups they fund, Hyper kept the number of companies per season small in order to provide hands-on help.
Each company goes through a four-week founder program, and gets access to Hyper’s special partners, including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), AngelList, Sequoia Capital, The Twenty Minute VC Podcast, and Product Hunt.
The Hyper team is led by, Shahed Khan (CEO)- previously president and co-founder of Loom; Josh Buckley (GP)- Buckley Ventures, previously CEO of Product Hunt, CEO and founder of Mino Games and Malika Cantor (Partnerships)- previously Community and Programs at Sequoia and Google.
Shahed Khan, co-founder of Hyper, said: “Arogga has a unique opportunity to significantly improve the pharmaceutical experience for patients in Bangladesh, leading to better treatment adherence and patient outcomes. While we’ve made investments in the South Asian region, we’re excited that Arogga is our first bet in the emerging Bangladeshi market because of our high conviction in the co-founders with their ambitious vision.”
Co-founders Rosina Mazumder and Yawar Mehboob attended the Hyper program kick-off in San Francisco.
"It’s extra special for me and my team to be the first Bangladeshi start-up to backed by the fund. Being part of the kick-off was quite intense, with a lot of networking and learning. The most valuable part was meeting and learning from the other start-up founders and partners at Andreessen and Sequoia," said Arogga co-founder Rosina Mazumder.
Yawar Mehboob, Co-founder and CFO, said: “We are passionate about solving some of the fundamental problems that exist within the healthcare market in Bangladesh. We’re taking a bottom-up approach, starting at the base by providing access to genuine medicine reliably across the nation. With the injection of funds, we want to spend on infrastructure expansion and investment in technology to further scale nationwide."
Bangladesh’s pharmaceutical market is estimated to be at least $3.5 billion in size, and set to grow to $6 billion in 2025.
Despite the size and growth, the market remains fragmented, with inefficient and expensive distribution and supply chain issues, further complicated by over 20% of medicines in pharmacies being counterfeit.