The Brazilian health tech startup that provides digital medical prescriptions Nexodata enters a new phase this Monday (28) with a new brand. Adding the online purchase of medicines into its digital prescription service, the company backed by some of the most prestigious names in the Brazilian financial market is now called Mevo.
The new feature directly results from the last round raised by the startup. In June last year, Mevo announced a Series A funding round of BRL 35 million, with the participation of the MELI Fund — Mercado Libre‘s fund —, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, Floating Point, FIR Capital, and the “family office” of XP Inc‘s co-founder, Guilherme Benchimol. In total, the startup has already raised BRL 40 million from investors. LTS Investments (Jorge Paulo Lemann, Beto Sicupira, and Marcel Telles firm), Arpex Capital (Stone‘s founder André Street firm), and Eduardo Mufarej (from Tarpon Investimentos) were responsible for injecting the startup‘s seed capital back in 2017.
“The service is already available and is not an app; instead, it’s a web interface, such as a website, which is accessed by the customers’ cell phone or computer browser, as soon as they access the link sent to them by their doctors or health facilities. Through this interface, they can access their digital prescription and also buy the medicines prescribed in it, digitally, directly from the main pharmacy chains in the country,” explained Mevo’s CEO, Pedro Dias, to LABS. He founded the startup in 2017 alongside Lucas Lacerda and the doctor Antonio Carlos Endrigo. Before that, Dias and Lacerda had created another startup, Vitta, of corporate health plans, sold to Stone in 2020.
How the purchase of medicines via Mevo works
After a medical appointment, in person or remotely, patients receive a link on their cell phone or email with which they can access Mevo’s digital prescription, with the option to download the pdf prescription as well, if necessary.
Through the same link, patients can also access another Mevo digital environment in which they can check pharmacies close to them, as well as have the option to purchase online through pharmacies that operate digitally.
The responsibility for delivering the medication lies with each partner pharmacy, and the deadline varies according to each pharmacy. If the customer chooses to buy the drugs in person, every Brazilian pharmacy can supply the prescribed drugs via Mevo’s prescriptions, Dias said. The financial engineering behind the new functionality is made possible by a fintech partner, but Dias said he could not reveal which one for strategic reasons.
Mevo’s next step will be to add a drug price comparison tool to this journey. “We understand that the drug’s price is always a very important variable when the patient makes decisions.”
Mevo has already issued nearly 6 million digital prescriptions, exam requests, and medical referrals to more than 300 healthcare institutions. Among the startup‘s clients are some of the largest healthcare groups in Brazil, such as Grupo NotreDame Intermédica and Rede D’Or.
