Panvel Group, known for its pharmacy chain in the southern region of Brazil and São Paulo, is a business group with over fifty years of experience. In 2019, Alexandre Arnold, Panvel Group’s director of technology and innovation and founder of Panvel Labs, realized that the digital transformation built years ago, which allowed the exposure of a microservices chassis called OmniPharma, could be used to accelerate the integration of technological solutions from technology-based companies, mainly startups. Panvel Labs was created to kickstart the open innovation journey. In 2020, Alexandre invited Fabio Machado, head of innovation at Panvel Labs, to help pave the way. It started with a startup connection program, seeking solutions that involved co-creating an AI predictive model to offer personalized product recommendations to the customer base. Then the pandemic hit the world, presenting a completely different scenario for healthcare companies, facing new challenges. Panvel Labs, in partnership with e-prescription startups, managed to enable and process medicine purchases with e-prescription retention across all sales channels, on and offline experience,” says Alexandre. In 2021, Panvellabs accelerated six startups, with one invested, Lincon, a digital therapy platform for the treatment of chronic patients with diabetes, hypertension and obesity (which aligns with Panvel Labs strategic pillar of health and well-being).

The investment in Innovation was around R$ 2 million.

Panvel Ventures operates in line with its open innovation arm, Panvel Labs. To date, it has connected more than twenty startups to its ecosystem. “It is clear to us that this is a strategic and financial investment for both sides, but what we truly seek is knowledge,” says Fabio. “We want to improve our company and bring in new people and ideas that can shape our future, not just internally but in all areas, from our customers in the pharmacies to the overall culture and systems of the company,” says Alexandre.

grupopanvel.com.br/pt/innovation