Digital Startup Lifepack Receives US$7 Million Series A Funding From Golden Gate Ventures

Photo: Dok. Lifepack

JAKARTA - Lifepack, a digital pharmaceutical company in Indonesia, managed to get an injection of USD 7 million from a series A funding led by Golden Gate Ventures, a venture capitalist in Southeast Asia that was started by Silicon Valley people.

Lifepack is a digital pharmacy that provides quality treatment and supplement services for the people of Indonesia. Where this company offers prescription drug products, especially drugs for people with chronic diseases at competitive prices as its specialty, as well as providing health supplements and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs for general patients.

In 2025, the pharmaceutical industry in Indonesia is predicted to double with an estimated market value of close to 20 billion US dollars. Online pharmacy alone only covers 3.5 percent of the total share of this large pharmaceutical market.

The existence of the COVID-19 pandemic has also become a catalyst for community adoption to get digital health services via applications on mobile phones. Even in 2020, the Indonesian government will update the rules for prescribing drugs online to accelerate the digital revolution in health services on a national scale.

These two main factors ultimately support Lifepack's rapid growth, followed by the factor of Indonesian middle class youth who are already digitally literate.

Lifepack has successfully established warehouse pharmacies in Jakarta and Surabaya with a wide coverage, which provides free drug delivery throughout Indonesia. Lifepack's third branch located in Bandung will soon be inaugurated, and in the near future there will be 7 more branches in big cities that will be opened gradually, of course, supported by the injection of newly obtained funds.

The Lifepack warehouse pharmacy model allows for centralized stock and inventory availability, thus enabling the availability of a very complete and wide range of drugs.

Lifepack was founded by chairman John Kwari and CEO Natali Ardianto, and has become a formidable player in the online pharmacy sector by marrying two big names John & Natali. A senior in the pharmaceutical business, John comes from a family that has been in the pharmaceutical sector and successful for four decades, establishing several pharmacies in Canada.

Meanwhile, Natali Ardianto is a familiar name among Indonesian startups, having successfully established four companies and two have been acquired. Natali's position as one of the main actors in developing technology strategies and changing business growth models is no longer in doubt.

“The Indonesian pharmaceutical industry is currently very fragmented with a complex network of distributors and pharmacies have difficulty completing the availability and completeness of their drugs. It is not uncommon for patients to have to visit many different pharmacies to redeem their prescriptions. This situation is even more difficult for patients with chronic diseases. This is where Lifepack will transform health services by providing complete medicines for patients throughout Indonesia at competitive prices, anytime, anywhere," said John Kwari in his statement, Thursday, August 11.

CEO Natali Ardianto also explained that currently Indonesia is at the beginning of the technology-based healthcare revolution. In less than two years, people have changed their habits by 180 degrees, where all things related to health can be accessed via mobile phones.

Lifepack will lead the pharmacy revolution and create omnichannel services as a health destination for patients and medical professionals to get excellent health services.

One of the interesting aspects of Lifepack is the collaboration with medical professionals, where Lifepck provides a platform for doctors to provide long-term services to patients through a single portal, to help doctors adjust prescriptions to the patient's current condition. Patients can do consultations and get prescriptions easily without having to wait in long lines at the clinic.

In accordance with Lifepack users who mostly have chronic diseases, a qualified customer service team and pharmacists are deployed to ensure that patients receive the best service.

Since the company's inception, Golden Gate Ventures has provided great support to Lifepack as one of the start-ups that seek to digitize traditional industries in Indonesia. This sizable funding signifies their belief in Lifepack's significant growth, given the market potential and growth of digital transformation in Indonesia.

“The ability to identify reliable long-term players, who have a vision to transform their industry, is one of our strategies at Golden Gate Ventures when conducting our initial start-up review. The best formulas are a combination of great founders with a strong vision and market-relevant business ideas. Lifepack is a combination of these three aspects. We are ready to support the growth of the Lifepack business through our extensive network and our deep insights for collaboration opportunities in the start-up golden triangle region of Indonesia, Vietnam and Singapore,” said Justin Hall, partner at Golden Gate Ventures.

Golden Gate Ventures is one of the pioneers of the start-up ecosystem in Southeast Asia that has long focused on the health technology industry, which has also supported strong players in the same sector such as Medigo, Alodokter, and Hanna Life Technologies.

A balance between Southeast Asian heritage and Silicon Valley cultural roots, Golden Gate Ventures provides strategic direction not only on the dynamics of the Indonesian market, but also the best strategies and modeling of success stories in Silicon Valley.

This understanding and insight is very much needed so that Lifepack can maximize the next phase of growth, starting from network expansion throughout Indonesia and ultimately evolving as one of the best businesses in its field by using an omni-channel strategy.