The J Curve Insider: The VC-Backed Startup That Opened a Pharmacy

In Brazil, over 80% of prescriptions are still handwritten. There’s no PBM layer like in the U.S., and patients typically pay out of pocket—even with private insurance. The result is a prescription system that’s outdated and hard to navigate—for patients, doctors, and providers alike.

Mevo is changing that.

What started as a B2B prescription platform—serving just one hospital in 2020—is now plugged into nearly 1,000 hospitals across Brazil. Along the way, Pedro Dias, the founder and CEO of Mevo, made a few bold calls that most would’ve considered suicide for a venture-backed startup:

• Gave the product away for free for six years
• Built his own pharmacy to prove the consumer experience
• Ignored B2C until the backend infrastructure and hospital integrations were fully scaled

But that patient-first, provider-obsessed approach paid off. Today, Mevo serves over 20 million Brazilians with e-prescriptions—and is building what Pedro calls the “Kindle Store” of pharma. Three clicks. One hour. No paperwork.

In this Insider, Pedro breaks down what it really takes to digitize Brazil’s prescription rails—from earning the trust of hospitals to launching a new marketplace model. We get into why digital prescriptions are the real unlock, how AI copilots are changing the doctor workflow, and why infrastructure—not speed—is what wins in a complex market. Plus, his contrarian takes on hiring, culture, and building systems that last.

“This is a winner-takes-most market. And the infrastructure is the moat.”

Let’s get into it.

PRESCRIPTIONS IN BRAZIL START ON PAPER

Olga Maslikhova (The J Curve): Let’s start with context. What’s the core problem Mevo is solving?
Pedro Dias: Brazil still runs on paper. We estimate over 1 billion prescriptions are issued per year—and 80% of those are still handwritten. There’s no PBM system like in the U.S., and even people with private insurance usually pay out of pocket. That makes the process chaotic and hard to scale.

OM: So how did you even begin digitizing that kind of market?
PD: We decided early on to go where the prescription process actually starts: inside hospitals. From 2017 to 2020, we only signed one hospital. It was brutal. But from 2020 to 2024, we scaled to nearly 1,000 hospitals, including some of the biggest networks in Brazil.

OM: From one hospital to nearly a thousand—that’s a massive leap. But when did it actually feel like Mevo had found product-market fit?
PD: On the B2B side, there were three moments. First, we set a goal of 150,000 prescriptions by December 2022. We hit it in two days after integrating with one of Brazil’s largest health groups. Second, we launched with Rede D’Or—the biggest hospital network in Latin America. That was a milestone I’d been working toward since 2017. Third, when we crossed 1 million prescriptions in a single month.

OM: What gives Mevo a defensible edge?
PD: This is a winner-takes-most market. To win, you have to dominate e-prescriptions—not just be another online pharmacy. That means deep integrations, operational excellence, and massive trust from healthcare providers. The hard part wasn’t selling prescriptions—it was building the infrastructure to make them work. That’s why we’re still here.

SLOW BY DESIGN, FAST IN RETROSPECT

OM: Building real infrastructure isn’t quick. Why bet on depth over speed?
PD: We made a very intentional decision to stay B2B-only for six years. No consumer features. No marketplace. Just focus on hospitals and software integrations. That helped us build trust and go deep with the institutions that really define the prescription flow in Brazil.

OM: But eventually you had to bring in the consumer experience. And instead of partnering with a pharmacy—you built your own. That’s not a typical move for a venture-backed tech startup.
PD: I was against it at first. Owning a pharmacy didn’t fit the “startup playbook.” But we needed to control the experience to prove what was possible. So in 2022, we opened our own fulfillment center in São Paulo. That let us build the exact product we envisioned: three clicks, one hour delivery, no paperwork. Like buying a book on the Kindle Store.

OM: How does the model work today—especially outside São Paulo?
PD: Today, 100% of our revenue comes from helping patients fill their prescriptions. In São Paulo, we fulfill directly through our own pharmacy. But everywhere else, we’re scaling through a marketplace model—partnering with local pharmacies to handle fulfillment while we handle the digital layer.

OM: And that’s where the long-term margin and scale live?
PD: Exactly. The full-stack approach helped us prove the experience. But the future is the marketplace. We don’t want to open 50 pharmacies. We want to empower local partners to deliver a great experience through our platform.

THE PHARMA PLATFORM PLAY

OM: Now that you’ve built the rails, how are you thinking about serving pharma?
PD: For years, we stayed away from pharma companies to stay focused on infrastructure. But now that the system is in place, we’re building real solutions for them—things like business intelligence, adherence programs, and recurring treatment workflows. These are high-margin, strategic services that pharma companies care about but haven’t solved digitally. We’re already working with 4–5 manufacturers, and we see this becoming a major revenue stream.

OM: Beyond pharma, what are the two big bets Mevo is focused on next?
PD: First, scaling the marketplace. We want every partner pharmacy to deliver the same experience we built in São Paulo—three clicks, one-hour delivery, no paperwork. Second, growing this pharma offering into a full business line.

AI, TRUST, AND GOING SLOW TO GO FAR

OM: What about AI? Are you using it to improve prescription flows?
PD: We’ve been using clinical decision support tools since day one. But now, we’re working on AI copilots—tools that help doctors prescribe faster and with fewer errors by learning from their past behavior. It’s a huge unlock for adoption.

OM: What’s the biggest misconception people have about digitizing healthcare in Brazil?
PD: That it can happen fast. It can’t. This is a sector that moves slowly—whether it’s culture, tech, or regulation. We knew it would take years to earn trust and integrate with hospitals. We knew we had to be in person. You can’t build this over Zoom. You have to show up.

PATIENCE, CAPITAL, AND CONVICTION

OM: Let’s zoom out. You’ve raised close to R$250 million—but you spent years making no revenue. That takes serious investor conviction—and patience. How did you frame Mevo to get that kind of backing?
PD: For years, I was pitching a Series C infrastructure company with pre-revenue metrics. And a lot of investors said no. But the ones who understood saw what we were building: national-scale rails for prescriptions in a market with over 1 billion issued per year. Once that infrastructure was in place, the business model became obvious.

We framed it as a long-term bet on the digital transformation of healthcare in Brazil. Not a quick-win B2C play, but a once-in-a-generation opportunity to own the rails in a market still running on paper. That resonated with early backers who think in decades, not quarters—people like Veronica Serra, Andre Street and Guilherme Benchimol. Hospital Albert Einstein also backed us early, which gave us instant credibility with the healthcare ecosystem.

By the time we raised our Series B, the infrastructure was no longer a vision—it was a system operating at scale. Matrix Partners led the round, with TJ Parker—founder of PillPack and former head of Amazon Pharmacy—serving as the partner on the deal. Prosus Ventures joined shortly after. That combination of operator belief, institutional trust, and global capital gave us the space to build patiently—and at scale.

RAPID FIRE

OM: One belief you hold that most would disagree with?
PD: Don’t hire HR too early. You can’t delegate culture—founders have to stay close to the team.

OM: A book or podcast that shaped how you think?
PD: Dream Big—the story of the 3G Capital founders. It shaped how I think about culture and partnerships. And Acquired. I listened to every episode—some twice—when preparing to raise our Series B. It helped me understand how Bay Area VCs think.

OM: What’s the hardest decision you’ve made?
PD: Opening our own pharmacy. It was totally counterintuitive—didn’t look like a VC-backable move at all. I was against it at first. But it was the best decision we ever made.

OM: If you weren’t building Mevo, what would you be doing?
PD: In healthcare, I’d build a consumer-focused drug manufacturer. Outside of it, probably a fashion brand. I love product, design, and brand-building.

TAKEAWAYS

✓  Infrastructure is the moat. In complex, regulated markets, deep integration beats surface-level scale. Mevo built the rails first, then turned on monetization. It’s a playbook worth studying in other verticals.
✓ Do things that don’t scale. The best path to scale might start with something wildly unscalable. Mevo’s in-house pharmacy gave them a clear understanding of what excellent customer experience looks like—and the credibility to scale it through others.
✓ Trust is earned offline. You can’t Zoom your way to healthcare adoption in Brazil. Mevo showed up, in person, hospital by hospital. In high-friction markets, real presence still matters.
✓ Real believers don’t flinch at long games. The right partners aren’t just writing checks—they’re matching your time horizon. In complex markets, founders need investors who think in decades, not quarters—and who understand that patience is a competitive advantage.

 P.S. If this issue was valuable to you please share it with a founder who needs to hear it. Let’s build LATAM’s next tech leaders—together.

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