The home delivery startup Rappi continues to grow, both in its expansion and in the diversity of services it seeks to offer its users. Now, this app will add the service of prescription drugs at home after the agreement between Rappi and Sanofi, the European pharmaceutical group.
Rappi and Sanofi come together to bring medicines home … and soon doctors
Of course, Rappi’s goal is to offer the widest range of products and services possible, not just the food delivery service, supermarket purchases, and recently even cash shipments. Soon you can even ask for a doctor through Rappi.
After the alliance between Rappi and Sanofi, seven markets will be able to access their new service: Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay, Argentina and Chile, and both companies intend to co-develop platforms to serve other services in the future.
The agreement between Rappi and Sanofi will seek to work jointly on the health landscape, by including access to solutions and services for consumers in these markets. In the beginning, the alliance will be able to offer health care products for free commercialization, although they intend to be extended to prescription drugs and even home visits by doctors.
Paul Martingell, vice president of Sanofi Consumer Healthcare for Latin America said: “we believe that this union has the potential to transform health, allowing us to better understand the needs and serve millions of consumers and patients, wherever they are and when they need us.”
Rappi’s large database could help create new strategies for companies
However, the partnership between Rappi and Sanofi goes beyond just the supply of drugs at home, as it will include marketing activation campaigns, marketing for consumers, buyers, customers, and supplies, as well as promotional activities.
The Colombian unicorn company believes that the data on the purchase history of its customers could be used by Sanofi to adjust its sales and marketing strategies, according to what Juan Sebastián Ruales, commercial director of Rappi, assures.
“It’s not what people say they do, it’s what they put in the basket. If you say that you are a person who is in shape but then you receive many Rappi burgers, we know that you are not in shape, “Ruales said, noting that large companies could adjust their sales strategies under this scenario.
“We want to be the authority for the health care market in eCommerce, for this reason, we made the decision to convert the category into a destination for our users,” said the manager.
It is expected that this new service will begin to be available next April in Colombia, and then it will be extended to the other six countries in the region, including Mexico.
On the other hand, Sanofi’s interest in startups dates back to 2015, the year in which the pharmaceutical company launched its innovation program for the health sector Health-U, which is dedicated to developing startups with commercial solutions that can improve the quality of life of the patients, such as the diagnosis and monitoring of the patient through images, health advice, emotional support, among others.
Also published on Medium.