Rs 2 Crore For 2% Equity At Rs 100-Cr Valuation
Namita Thapar, Aman Gupta and Peeyush Bansal invest in Medulance.
MUMBAI Feb 18 (The CONNECT): India’s first Integrated Emergency Response Provider Medulance created history on television when it was offered a whopping Rs 5 crore for 5% equity on the Shark Tank India Season 2 that was aired on Sony Entertainment Television yesterday. This was only the second time in the history of the show that such a huge amount was offered to entrepreneurs by the Sharks.
One of the Sharks, Amit Jain, the Co-Founder and CEO of CarDekho Group, offered the Medulance founders Pranav Bajaj and Ravjot Singh Arora an investment of Rs. 5 Crore in exchange for 5% equity. The duo, however, accepted a counter-offer of Rs 2 crore for 2% equity by the Sharks Namita Thapar (Emcure Pharmaceuticals), Aman Gupta (BoAt) and Peeyush Bansal (Lenskart), at a valuation of Rs 100 crores.
Medulance operates a fleet of 7,500+ ambulances in over 500 cities across India for fast and reliable first-point medical attention. The company generated a revenue of Rs 24 crore last year, with a 24% profit margin, Pranav Bajaj and Ravjot Singh Arora disclosed during the show. The remarkable figures led Shark Anupam Mittal (People Group) jokingly question the two young entrepreneurs about the need to participate in the show when they were already doing so well! To this, the Medulance founders quipped that they needed the Sharks’ knowledge of building a business as much as the funding itself. All the Sharks on the show were keen on using their expertise and business acumen to help Medulance grow and become a billion-dollar enterprise, achieving its aim of expanding to all tier-3 cities across India and South-East Asia.
On receiving funding, Pranav Bajaj, Co-Founder, Medulance, said: “We are delighted to receive funding on Shark Tank India Season 2. Over 30% of victims of road accidents and health emergencies in India lose their lives due to delay in receiving first-point medical attention. Rushing the patient to a medical facility in the shortest time possible, the so-called Golden Hour, is critical in saving lives. With our fleet of ambulances, we aim to reduce the response time to a medical emergency drastically. We know we are doing something important, so receiving validation of our work from the Sharks means the world to us. We plan to invest the amount to drive more innovation and expand our pan-India footprint.”
Said Ravjot Singh Arora, Co-Founder, Medulance: “The experience on the show was a roller coaster, but I am glad that the Sharks saw potential in our business which is providing a critical service to the people of India. It was a tough call to decline the fabulous Rs 5 crore offer, one of the highest ever on Shark Tank, and opt for the Rs 2 crore offer instead, but this was based on sound business sense. We now have the resources to help us reach our services to more people and organizations, and further scale our operations to more cities across the country. We look forward to saving even more lives in the years ahead.”
Arora narrated to the Sharks the story behind the founding of Medulance in 2017. He said: “The business plan for Medulance was made after suffering a personal loss. My father had to rush to the nearest hospital from our home to fetch an ambulance when my grandfather faced a serious health emergency. Unfortunately, due to delayed first-point medical attention, he couldn’t be saved. This incident hurt me deeply and became the inspiration to start Medulance. Our mission is to make ambulances as accessible in every pin code in India as taxis and food delivery services. We do not want any more lives lost because first-point medical attention was not available on time.”
Recently, Medulance launched a 5G smart connected ambulance in collaboration with Reliance Jio that allows real-time, two-way audio and video communication, ambulance tracking and real-time streaming of patient health data to a distant doctor over the high-speed 5G network, changing the future of emergency health response services in the country.
