Business tycoon Ratan Tata’s investment in the pharma startup with 18-year old Arjun Deshpande as founder and CEO is proof that the young entrepreneur shouldn’t be underestimated. The entrepreneurial world was also amazed when Tata tweeted in praise of generic Aadhaar, the startup. In May 2020, Tata Group acquired a stake in Generic Aadhaar for an undisclosed amount. Generic Aadhaar was started by Arjun Deshpande at the age of 16 and was an innovative venture in the pharmaceutical industry. The initiative is to provide quality medicines to Indians at affordable prices
One of India’s youngest entrepreneurs, Arjun Deshpande took up entrepreneurship after being inspired by his mother, who is involved in the international pharma business. During the school holidays, the trip with her mother to the US, Vietnam, China and Dubai was a turning point. He accompanied his mother to international pharma seminars and asked queries on the subject often. He learned how to sell Indian-made medicines abroad at affordable prices. Once Arjun asked his mother why there is such a high price in India when medicines are available to people in these countries at affordable prices. As most of the medicines in India become branded drugs, the packaging and marketing charges reach the consumers. The dream of providing quality medicines at affordable prices led to Generic Aadhaar.
Generic Aadhaar Pharmacy Network provides affordable medicines to small pharma retailers. In a pharmacy-aggregator business model, generic drugs are taken directly from the manufacturer and delivered to retailers, thereby completely eliminating intermediaries and delivering the drugs to the people at a lower cost. This helps to avoid a wholesale margin of 16-20%. According to Arjun Deshpande, the mission is to provide daily necessities to senior citizens and pensioners at affordable prices.
The startup, which claims an annual revenue of Rs 6 crore, expects revenue of Rs 150-200 crore over the next three years. Ratan Tata recently launched the Generic Aadhaar mobile app. The chain has several retailers in Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Odisha. It aims to set up outlets in 125 cities by mid-2021, including Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida, Madurai, Chennai, Amritsar and Ludhiana. Generic Aadhaar plans to set up 1000 franchise medical stores in the country within a year. Isn’t it hard to believe that this is the goal and growth of an 18-year-old entrepreneur
