Arincare, a startup providing a pharmacy management platform, has secured around 135 million baht in its latest Series B funding round, through investments made by Chularat Hospital Group (CHG) Plc and PTG Energy Plc.
The move is aimed at supporting healthcare service access and capitalising on the burgeoning pharmacy and medical supply market, which is estimated to be worth 190 billion baht.
Arincare also aims to attain profitability this year and list on the Market for Alternative Investment (MAI) in 2026.
The platform supports inventory management, point of sales, e-prescription and patient medication records for drugstores.
"The fundraising will support synergy between Arincare and the strategic investors to strengthen the health tech ecosystem and make healthcare more affordable and accessible," said Teera Kanokkanjanarat, chief executive and co-founder of Arincare.
This fundraising round was led by CHG, followed by PTG Energy, which owns petrol stations and drugstores.
Thailand is the second largest pharmacy market in Asean. It was valued at 35.5 billion baht in 2019.
Some 180 million visits are paid to drugstores in the country per year. There were 18,000 pharmacies operating countrywide last year.
According to Mr Teera, the market will continue to grow by between 13% and 17% per year. Its share of the market in 2022 was worth 40 billion baht.
The market's growth would also be supported by the government's healthcare scheme that allows patients with 16 common diseases to pick up their medicine at their local drugstore.
"Drugstores and pharmacists in communities are a gateway for people to gain better access to health services, especially when connected to a healthcare ecosystem," said Mr Teera.
Post-pandemic, users are expected to spend more on vitamins and food supplement products with the market worth 70 billion baht.
Arincare also offers an e-marketplace for business-to-business (B2B) services for drugstores. In addition, it launched business-to-consumer (B2C) services last year.
In 2022, Arincare doubled its user base, he said. The company aims to reach profitability by year-end, driven by services, commission and referral fees.
The firm has a network of over 3,000 pharmacies nationwide and aims to expand this to reach 6,000 by 2026, when it plans to launch an initial public offering (IPO) and list on the MAI.
"The IPO will support us to reach the pharmaceutical market in hospitals, beyond drugstores, as well as expand to overseas markets," said Mr Teera.
CHG chief executive Dr Kumpol Plussind said the investment in Arincare would support its expansion to community areas and provide teleconsulting to people.
"This yields opportunities to combine both inpatient and outpatient treatments by bringing the application of technology on the Arincare platform, the e-prescription system in particular," said Dr Kumpol. "This has made it possible to share patient information with medical teams to provide continuous treatment."
Pitak Ratchakitprakarn, president and chief executive of PTG, said healthcare is one of the future markets and could help PTG go beyond the energy business.
