DCDC Health Services Pvt. Ltd, which operates dialysis centres under the brand Deep Chand Dialysis Centre, on Wednesday said that it has closed its Series C funding round of Rs 150 crore ($20.5 million).
The funding was led by Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU), a development finance institution of Denmark, said DCDC in a statement.
IFU’s investment has been made on behalf of the Danish SDG Investment Fund, which is backed by Denmark, large Danish pension funds and other private and institutional investors.
Existing investor Asian Development Bank (ADB) also participated in this funding round.
DCDC will use the funds to expand presence across the country with a mix of public and private partnerships (PPP).
The company currently has more than 100 centres with its presence concentrated in the northern regions of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, National Capital Region (NCR) and Madhya Pradesh. It aims to have over 200 centres over the next three years.
Investment bank Veda Corporate Advisors was the exclusive financial adviser to DCDC on the deal.
DCDC was founded by Aseem Garg in 2009. It offers dialysis care at its PPP centres along with its centres at private hospitals and standalone clinics.
The company had raised its first external funding of close to $5 million from UK-based CDC Group-backed Pragati India Fund in December 2014. In 2018, ADB had agreed to invest $10 million (Rs 68.7 crore) in DCDC.
The market for dialysis treatment in India is dominated by small and local players and there are only a handful of national players to cater to a growing market.
The sector got a shot in the arm when the government said in the 2016 budget that funds for the National Dialysis Services Programme will be made available through the PPP mode under the National Health Mission.
Dialysis chain NephroPlus is the most heavily funded player in the space in India.
The company had attracted $45 million from Investcorp as part of its Series D round of funding in November 2019. In the process, it also gave a full exit to SeaLink Capital, which had invested in 2016, while older investors Bessemer Venture Partners and International Finance Corporation (IFC) retained stakes.
Last year, NephroPlus bought a majority stake in a Philippine-based company in its first overseas acquisition.
In 2018, NephroPlus acquired DaVita Care India Pvt. Ltd. This was the second major acquisition in the dialysis segment involving a private equity-backed company.
In September 2016, Germany’s Fresenius Medical Care AG bought an 85% stake in Indian dialysis services company Sandor Nephro Services Pvt. Ltd, which runs the Sparsh Nephrocare chain, from a group of investors including Tata Capital Healthcare Fund.
