LUDA Partners, the digital network of pharmacies established to fight against the shortage of medicines and parapharmacy products, has announced the closure of its last funding round for 2.5 million Euros, which has raised great interest among investors, amounting a total of 4.4 million Euros since its foundation, four years ago. The startup will use this new capital boost in its industrialization process, in order to scale, prepare its internationalization and consolidate its project.
The short-term goal of LUDA Partners is to triple the volume of active pharmacies and reach 3,000 by 2022 in the Spanish market, and then plan its internationalization. Furthermore, the number of monthly operations is expected to grow from the current 5,000 to 50,000 during the first quarter of 2022. This will be possible due to agreements with the main laboratories in Spain, interested in integrating with LUDA Partners and the good prospects for the future, since in recent months both the number of pharmacy adhesions and the number of operations carried out have grown exponentially.
The round has been led by pharmacies and professionals belonging to the pharmaceutical sector, representing 50% of the investors. Other current partners have accompanied the round, such as Yago Arbeloa, founder and president of Mio Group, and François Nuyts, CEO of Allegro. Although initially the round was intended to be covered internally, finally it was decided to incorporate partners that provide added value to LUDA Partners, such as Bertrand Jelensperger, investor in Doctolib; and Hugo Arévalo, co-Founder and Executive Chairman of ThePowerMBA and AURO.
“Rarely you can find an investment in which such a clear social benefit is generated, and that is a business opportunity with so much potential, scalable and internationalizable,” says Yago Arbeloa, current partner who increases his participation in this round.
This process culminates a year of growth and expansion that has also been marked by the arrival to the project of Marcos Alves and Alejandro Lorenzo co-Founders of ElTenedor, as Partner & Chief Growth Officer and Partner & Regional Sales Director, respectively.
LUDA Partners offers a technological solution based on the creation of a neural network of pharmacies in order to fight against the shortage of medicines, managing to reduce it by up to 95%. When a patient does not find the product they need at their preferred pharmacy, the pharmacist can search it through Luda Partners’ solution in order to locate it and book it at the nearest pharmacy for the patient to pick up personally. This trailblazer solution creates a collaboration system between pharmacies, consolidating their role as the axis of the health sector and helping its digitalization, enabling them to continue their service based on the values of dedication and professionalism. The most immediate results are seen in the revenues of pharmacies that already use LUDA Partners, which can see their monthly turnover increased by up to 10,000 Euros per month.
Likewise, LUDA Partners supports pharmacies in their digital transformation process so that they can sell their parapharmacy products online. The tool connects laboratories websites, e-commerce and marketplaces with the nearest pharmacy so they can sell the parapharmacy order. In this sense, LUDA Partners takes advantage of the full digital potential of the network to retain and recover the online patient to the traditional model.
“This funding round motivates us to continue working on solving the drug shortages problem and the digital transformation of pharmacies, putting the pharmacy at the center of this transformation. This capital boost will help us to continue growing and incorporating more pharmacies into our network in the upcoming years, accompanying them in their digitalization process and strengthening their position as the axis of the sector.” comments Daniel de Carvajal, Founding Partner and CEO of LUDA Partners.