How we supported Indegene’s international initiatives

“Indegene is 26 years old, and in those 26 years we’ve always remained true to our DNA: combining deep medical and healthcare expertise with new age technology, to help the pharma industry be future-ready,” is how the company’s CFO Suhas Prabhu views the place he has worked at for two decades.

And few people understand the Bangalore-based health tech company's make-up like Suhas: “We help pharma clients across their commercialisation value chain - from bringing products out of the lab and into the market; and we use a data-driven, AI-first approach to help commercialise their products.”

But it hasn’t always been plain sailing for the company.

Indegene was founded in 1998, a challenging time, Suhas recalls, as the company fought funding and resource struggles amid the “dot-com boom and bust.”

Soon after, the company found its feet and began to look at growing. “In the initial days as we expanded beyond the shores of India, we had to establish credibility and compete against some of the largest corporations in the world.”

This is where we came in.

With Indegene expanding and HSBC’s strong international footprint, our partnership was a no-brainer.

Swati Singh, HSBC’s senior corporate banking manager based in India, has had a strong overview of the relationship.

She says: “We had been in touch with Indegene for a few years before we started working together on a meaningful basis in 2018. We realised there is a mutual synergy between the two companies: with Indegene looking to further expand globally, and HSBC having network banking capabilities and transaction banking products across the geographies where Indegene was looking to expand.”

A banking partner with strong international ties was a good fit for Indegene. Suhas explains the challenges with going global: “Each country comes with its own nuances; the requirements from a consumer perspective, cultural and language aspects that are so varied as you operate in multiple markets across the globe.”

For Swati, this is where our international network comes to the fore: “It is our cumulative knowledge and experience that makes HSBC’s network a valuable asset. But not only this, we have transaction banking products in place which are unified across the geographies.”

We were a major player for Indegene when it decided to expand into North America and our credit relationship team proved invaluable to its priorities.

Suhas says it boils down to two things: our resources and platforms.

“When we expanded inorganically in the US, HSBC was a partner in bringing the credit relationship and the resources needed for that inorganic expansion.

“The other aspect is while we also expand globally, we need the ability to have seamless ways of managing various aspects of the business. The bank plays a key role in that. The global web and mobile platform make it a wonderful experience without having to go through multiple hoops to make the transactions and the banking aspects of the transactions seamless.”

Today, Indegene has six operational hubs and 18 offices across North America, Europe and Asia. The company counts the world’s top 20 pharma companies among its clientele.

HSBC and Indegene is a true global relationship built on trust. We now support them with managing liquidity, investments, and FX among an array of other banking services.

Suhas says: “It’s important for the people that we work with to understand our unique business model, our unique requirements, and translate that globally into multiple markets that we would want to operate in.

“We believe that is the right partnership requirement and that is what HSBC brings to the table.”

As Swati and her team look to support Indegene’s expansion journey, she shares her views for similar businesses looking to follow its footsteps: “For businesses looking to expand internationally, I would recommend having a trusted partner so that they can tide over some of the challenges which they might face.”