Livewell Healthcare, a Hyderabad-based company which is creating a chain of hospitals under the Laurel brand in Hyderabad besides plans to run an existing hospital in Africa, is raising Rs 25 crore ($4.17 million) from Exhilway Global Opportunities Private Equity Fund, a top executive told VCCircle.
Exhilway, which used to run hedge funds and has recently divested the business to do private equity funding, has already put in Rs 12 crore as the first tranche, according to Rahul Kumar, India head for Exhilway Global, which is raising a string of PE funds.
Exhilway will own 8 per cent stake in Livewell Healthcare as part of the overall deal.
Livewell is setting up a 120-bed specialty hospital in Madhapur area in Hyderabad which would be functional in a few months.
In addition it is entering Africa where it would be working with the government of Guinea which has offered the Jean Paul II hospital with 250 beds.
“The reason behind investing in Livewell was that it is entering the African market. There is a huge need for healthcare in Africa and as they are working in tandem with the government it is a good opportunity,” said Exhilway’s Kumar.
Livewell was started by doctor turned entrepreneurs AMV Sai Kumar and Uday Rachakonda. They have independently managed various ICU and OT departments in several hospitals besides serving as medical superintendents and being actively involved in medical administration of hospitals.
Exhilway is a multi-asset investment management firm, known for its hedge fund business. Last month Exhilway exited this unit by reassigning the operational rights to a large private investor group in Australia in lieu of market linked variable royalty, payable every year by the investor group.
Exhilway, which was looking to exit actively managed hedge fund business since the last two years, is now left with business interests in real estate advisory and private equity. It is now looking to set up new market neutral, less risky hedge funds focusing on the emerging markets of Morocco, Hungary, India, Brazil and China along with the developed markets of the US and Europe.
Simultaneously it plans to launch several private equity funds, mutual funds and exchange traded funds to attract global investors.
Early this year Exhilway announced plans for a crowd-funding platform called Exhilway Link covering all major types of crowd-funding, classified into debt, equity and royalty. The platform will initially operate in India, the US and the UK. The platform will be open for both accredited and non-accredited investors.
Exhilway plans to build an AUM of $10 billion in the next three years.
Livewell marks the second deal for Exhilway this year. Last month, it had announced investment of $4 million in IndiDebt.com, a yet-to-be launched debt funding platform.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)