Myntra ex-chief Narayanan may check into Medlife as CEO

MUMBAI: Former Myntra-Jabong CEO Ananth Narayanan is finalising a move to epharmacy platform Medlife, more than six months after having exited the Walmart-owned fashion e-tailer, three people in the know said.

Narayanan is learnt to be taking on the CEO role at Medlife and has also invested personal capital in the company run by the family behind pharmaceutical major Alkem Laboratories, sources privy to the development said.

Medlife, which sells medicines online along with facilitating diagnostic tests and doctor consultation, is currently in talks with Soft-Bank Vision Fund and pharma major Cipla for a funding round which is estimated at $100-150 million.

“He (Narayanan) has been in discussions with Medlife to take up the top job and build a team as they look to shore up external capital. Till now the Bengaluru-based firm has run only on family funds,” said a person privy to the talks. Narayanan, who was entitled to around $25 million as part of the Flipkart acquisition by Walmart, may have received around $10 million with rest of the amount expected to come in tranches over the next year or more.

An emailed query sent by ET to Narayanan did not elicit a response till press time.

 
Having joined Myntra in 2015 as its CEO, he had spent 15 years at McKinsey across various geographies. After the Jabong acquisition, he was heading the combined entity. Narayanan had held talks with SoftBank Vision Fund for a possible role but the discussions did not materialise, multiple people said. Narayanan has been backing startups in his personal capacity with investments in Curefit, scooter rental startup Vogo, education platform Unacademy, among others.

For Medlife, bringing someone like Narayanan will help it go out and raise a financing round which has been in the works for months now. Earlier this year, the company which was founded by Tushar Kumar and Prashant Singh in 2014, acquired Bengaluru-based medicine-delivery startup Myra in an allstock deal, indicating early signs of consolidation in India's crowded epharmacy sector.

Medlife, which competes with the likes of 1MG, Netmeds and PharmEasy, said its sales grew to nearly ?700 crore in FY19. The epharmacy is targeting Rs 1,400-1,500 crore in the current fiscal. The company raised Rs 298 crore at a valuation of Rs 2,788 crore from Kumar’s family trust, Prasid Uno, a shareholder in Alkem Laboratories. Kumar’s father was one of the cofounders of Mumbai-based Alkem.