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Business News/ Companies / Portea Medical raises $37.5 million in new funding
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Portea Medical raises $37.5 million in new funding

Healthcare start-up will use the funds to strengthen technology and develop disease-specific services, said CEO Meena Ganesh

The online healthcare segment in India is on a boom, with Portea leading the race in the home healthcare space.Premium
The online healthcare segment in India is on a boom, with Portea leading the race in the home healthcare space.

Bengaluru: HealthVista India Pvt. Ltd, which owns home healthcare solution provider Portea Medical, has raised $37.5 million in a Series B funding round led by Accel Partners, with participation from International Finance Corp. (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, Qualcomm Ventures and Ventureast.

Arun Mathew, investor at Accel Partners, will join the company’s board, Portea Medical said in a statement on Sunday.

The company had earlier raised $9 million in a Series A round from Accel Partners, Qualcomm Ventures and Ventureast in December 2013.

Portea was founded in 2012 by Zachary Jones and Karan Aneja. It was sold to serial entrepreneurs Krishnan Ganesh and his wife Meena Ganesh in 2013 for an undisclosed amount, in an all equity deal.

Krishnan Ganesh is credited with scripting one of the biggest mergers & acquisitions (M&As) in the domestic Internet industry, when he sold online education firm TutorVista Global Pvt. Ltd to the Pearson Group in 2013 for Rs980 crore.

The husband-wife duo have founded Growthstory, an angel investment firm, which has backed businesses such as online grocery store BigBasket, internet-first kitchen Freshmenu and online marketplace for used two-wheelers, CredR.

The company will use the funds to strengthen technology and increase the use of point of care devices for monitoring health conditions and develop disease-specific services, said Meena Ganesh, co-founder and chief executive officer at Portea Medical.

“We want to build the capability depth in each city. Currently, we have comprehensive services in the more mature locations where we have been operating for a few months. Similarly, we want to establish the breadth of offering across cities in which we operate," said Ganesh.

The company, at present, operates in 24 Indian cities, besides four in Malaysia, and claims to handle 60,000 monthly visits to patients’ homes. Plans are afoot to grow headcount by almost three times—from the present 3,000 to 8,000—in the next 18 months to support growth.

“Portea’s model ensures that hospital infrastructure and beds can be utilized for more critical medical cases and procedures," said Pravan Malhotra, principal investment officer for IFC’s venture capital investments in South Asia.

The online healthcare segment in India is on a boom, with Portea leading the race in the home healthcare space, which entails general healthcare, post-hospitalization care, chronic disease management, besides allied services such as renting out diagnostics and medical equipment.

Portea competes with Health Care at Home India Pvt. Ltd, Homital Medcare Pvt. Ltd, Zoctr Health Pvt. Ltd and India Home Health Care, among others.

With industry estimates pegging the home healthcare market in India at more than $2 billion, this segment has stoked ample interest among investors.

For instance, US-based Bayada Home Health Care acquired a 26% stake in India Home Health Care in September 2013, while Health Care at Home India is a joint venture between UK’s Healthcare at Home and Dabur Group promoters.

This apart, a number of doctor discovery platforms and practice management solution providers such as Practo Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Lybrate Inc., Qikwell Technologies India Pvt Ltd, and Ziffi have also emerged in the last couple of years.

While there are about 140 start-ups in this segment, only Practo, with $125 million in its kitty and Lybrate, with $11.4 million, have raised more than $10 million in a single funding round, according to Tracxn, which tracks start-ups.

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Published: 20 Sep 2015, 02:26 PM IST
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