A startup in Brazil that lets people easily buy medicine online by combining a consumer-friendly experience with prescription tech for providers just raised a $19 million Series B round.
Mevo has partnerships with more than 250 health systems and tech platforms like electronic health records in Brazil to issue digital prescriptions, which patients then use to collect at their pharmacy rather than bringing a paper prescription. Patients can also get their medications via Mevo’s online marketplace and have the prescriptions delivered to them.
The Series B round was led by investment firm Matrix, and Jefferson River Capital, the family office of Blackstone billionaire Tony James also invested in the round. Former Amazon Pharmacy executive and PillPack co-founder Elliot Cohen invested in an earlier round, among others.
TJ ParkerMatrix Ventures partner TJ Parker, who’s also a former Amazon executive and a co-founder at PillPack, said Mevo is the farthest along out of any company he’s seen globally in combining multiple parts of an ideal pharmacy system. That includes being able to see drug prices easily, multiple options to shop from and an online ordering and delivery service.
“This is the first I’ve seen that has coupled those things such that you get a Ro or Hims-like experience, but you get it from any prescription in the country at any pharmacy in the country,” he said.
CEO and co-founder Pedro Dias, who launched the startup in 2017, told Endpoints News he was inspired by Surescripts after learning about how the company electronically transmits prescription details from providers to pharmacies, on a trip to the US during the same year. Over 10 million Brazilians have received prescriptions from Mevo at least once in the last seven years in a country of around 200 million, Dias said, and all pharmacies in Brazil can accept and process prescriptions from Mevo.
Electronic prescription companies in the US, like Surescripts, were built in the early 2000s at a time when nobody could imagine that consumers would one day want to deal with prescriptions themselves, Parker said. Meanwhile, Mevo’s launch over the last decade was timed so that the team knew how to build a product that serves both providers and consumers.
“What most attracts me to companies in this space is folks that have both figured out these very complicated, nuanced solutions that are really integrated into the ecosystem, but also build something that’s really compelling for consumers,” Parker said.
Dias said he plans to use the funds to partner with more providers and develop Mevo’s technology, with an eye on possible international expansion further down the road in the future.
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Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify Mevo’s partnerships in Brazil.