Digital pharmacy platform ARINCARE unveils plan for IPO to list on SET by 2026

The move to list on the SET follows the the company’s successful US$4-million Series B funding round with two new investors — Chularat Hospital Group (CHG), and PTG Energy Pcl, an energy provider and service station.

ARINCARE provides a pharmacy management platform for drugstores, medicine express for business-to-business supply chain service and telepharmacy service.

Teera Kanokkanjanarat, CEO and co-founder of ARINCARE, told a press conference on Thursday that with CHG coming on board as the lead investor in this round of funding, and PTG as a follow-on investor, the company would be able to nurture and enhance the Thai health tech ecosystem in accordance with the company's road map.

He said the fund would be divided into three parts. The first component will be used to enhance supply chain infrastructure, the second part for technology development, and the last part for the preparation of its internal management so that ARINCARE can go public in the next three years.

ARINCARE would continue to expand its markets in a key cooperation with Chularat Hospital Group (CHG) in 2023, Teera said, adding this collaboration is focused on building a connected healthcare ecosystem between hospitals and local healthcare organisations. 

They would be connecting Arincare’s network of over 3,000 drugstores and pharmacists with CHG’s medical team.

"This will build healthcare capabilities into the community with nationwide coverage," Teera explained.

At the same time, the partnership with PTG’s MaxCard, a network with the greatest access to Thai consumers, will strengthen operation of local pharmacies by adding healthcare services to Thai consumers through the MaxCard privilege. 

Meanwhile, ARINCARE remains on track to list on the SET and launch an IPO in 2026, he said.

Teera said he strongly believes that with this model, ARINCARE could better penetrate its target groups, resulting in over 100% growth and enabling pharmacies and drugstores to deliver the greatest benefit to consumers.

Teera pointed out that the combination of the Covid-19 pandemic and Thailand becoming an ageing society had led to many consumers paying more attention to their own and their families' health. This trend has resulted in a promising growth of the healthcare market as well as rapidly rising demand for pharmacies and drugstores.

Along with this, he pointed out that government public health systems are insufficient to meet current demand, whereas private health services, such as clinics and hospitals, are concentrated in large cities or communities and charge high service fees.

"Community pharmacies and pharmacists are a gateway for people to better access health services, especially when connected to a healthcare ecosystem, on a platform dedicated to addressing inequalities, so that all Thai people have equal access to public health service systems through the medium of technology," he said.

Thailand currently has approximately 20,000 pharmacy outlets around the country, 80% of them are small and medium enterprises and only 20% are franchisees or large operators, Teera said.

In 2022, the market was worth 40 billion baht, growing on average by 7% annually. This expansion is expected to continue at a rate of 13-17% per year, reaching 190 billion baht in 2025.

Dr Kumpol Plussind, CHG's chief executive officer, said that bringing technology to the ARINCARE platform, specifically its e-prescription system, would yield opportunities to combine both in-patient and out-patient treatments in a seamless upgraded service for good quality of life.

"This reduces the number of prescriptions that are missed, forged, or reused. This also allows for easy monitoring of patients' medical treatment, medical adherence, and easy access to patient medication records without additional fees," he noted.

Meanwhile, Pitak Ratchakitprakarn, president and CEO of PTG, was pleased with their joint investment in ARINCARE. He said the move would assist PTG in improving its service stations to meet a variety of people’s needs, such as convenience stores and pharmacies. This would also expand PTG's business opportunities, he said.

"It is part of PTG's objective to increase the proportion of non-oil businesses to 60-70% by 2026, in line with the global trend to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. We are transitioning from the oil business to eight non-oil business sectors, including food and beverages, digital platforms, wellness and healthcare," he stated.

Teera was confident that the major collaboration with CHG and PTG would come out with new lines of business, underlining ARINCARE's mission of "Make Healthcare Affordable”.