Ahmedabad-based pharmaceutical research, marketing and manufacturing company La Renon Healthcare Pvt Ltd has raised $16 million (Rs 100 crore) in a Series A round of funding from Sequoia Capital, it said on Friday.
The company will use this capital to enhance its research and development capabilities and expand into new categories within the chronic diseases management space.
Pankaj Singh, founder, chairman and CEO of La Renon, said, “We view this partnership with Sequoia as an endorsement of the strength and sustainability of our branded formulations business and validation of our differentiated growth strategy across therapeutic segments.”
Founded by Singh in 2008, Le Renon provides pharmaceutical products and services for various critical illnesses and diseases. The company claims it was among the first to foray into the domain of nephrology in the country.
Besides nephrology, it has a presence in other chronic segments like critical care, neurological disorders and urology. It is now planning to enter new chronic disease segments such as gastroenterology and respiratory.
La Renon has 164 products that are distributed through over 400 stockists across the country.
“We believe La Renon has the potential to be a game-changer in the chronic disease care space in India. We look forward to working closely with it to propel the firm to the next phase of growth,” said VT Bharadwaj, managing director of Sequoia Capital India Advisors.
Sequoia Capital, one of the active VC firms in the country, has backed around a dozen firms in the healthcare and pharmaceutical domain. The bulk of these is in healthcare delivery or services space. Product and pharma companies that it has backed include Celon Labs and Paras Pharma, a maker of FMCG and OTC healthcare products, which was sold to Reckitt Benckiser in 2011.
Earlier this year, it invested in Koye Pharmaceuticals, which is into essential drugs for primary specialty care with products targeting ailments such as arthritis, iron deficiency, asthma, etc.
Sequoia Capital raised $530 million in its fourth India-focused fund last year to build on its venture and early growth investment activity in India. This new fund will invest in sectors like technology, consumer and healthcare. It topped up this fund with $210 million more to expand the investible corpus.
Citadel Management Consulting acted as exclusive advisor for this transaction.
