Dhaka-based healthtech startup PulseTech announced that it has raised $3 million in a pre-Series A round co-led by Singapore based accelerator Iterative and Vietnam-based early stage VC firm Ascend Vietnam Ventures (AVV). First reported by E27, the deal marks AVV’s first-ever investment in Bangladesh.
Founded in 2021 by Kazi Ashikur Rasul and Arefeen Raafi Ahmed, PulseTech aims to modernize the medicine supply chain at the pharmacy level to tackle counterfeit medicines challenge in Bangladesh, which the company claims is one of the highest in the region.
The company developed Medbox, a B2B ordering and logistics platform that enables pharmacies to source medicines directly from verified manufacturers. The system automates procurement, ensures traceability, and prevents counterfeit goods from entering the supply chain.
The company claims that it has grown 15 times over the past 12 months, now serving over 12,000 pharmacies and reaching 3.5 million people across Dhaka.
The central thesis of PulseTech lies in the idea that Bangladesh’s pharmaceutical distribution remains highly manual, relationship-driven, and largely unregulated. The absence of a unified supply chain makes quality control difficult. Many pharmacies tend to pursue lower prices through wholesale markets, a behaviour that increases exposure to fake medication.
For context, Bangladesh has over 230,000 pharmacies, many family-run and operate without proper legal registration. The idea is that a unified system could reduce counterfeit penetration while expanding access to safe medicines at scale.
With fresh capital, PulseTech says it is launching “One Pharmacy”, a franchise model designed to bring thousands of small, often non-compliant pharmacies under a standardised, digital-first operating framework. PulseTech also plans regional expansion across South and Southeast Asia, where fragmented supply chains and counterfeit drug risks mirror Bangladesh’s challenges.
In addition to its current platform, PulseTech is also building financial solutions for pharmacies, similar to other platforms working with MSMEs, expanding into financing for pharmacies in partnership with financial institutions. With inventory and purchase data captured through Medbox, the company works with lenders to offer inventory credit, giving pharmacies access to working capital.
PulseTech claims that at least one in 10 pharmaceutical products reaching Bangladeshi patients is counterfeit. By building reliable sourcing and last-mile logistics, PulseTech aims to become a gatekeeper for quality and safety.
