Gurgaon-based Leixir Resources, a services company which manages a small dental labs chain in North America through its group companies, has raised a Series A round of funding from IvyCap Ventures.
Leixir has six labs across North America and generates revenues of $6 million from the centres in Canada and the US. It is planning to build this into a $100 million business in the next three years as it expands in other markets, including India.
“We believe there is tremendous potential for value creation in the highly fragmented dental labs business across the globe. As the Indian dental market is getting more organised, it is the right time for organising value in the developed markets and then leveraging that for the Indian market,” said Vikram Gupta, founder and managing partner, IvyCap Ventures.
IvyCap Ventures has committed Rs 25 crore in Leixir in two tranches. It might make another round of funding in the near future. There is a possibility to bring in others investors for an additional amount in the future as well.
Leixir, which also has an oral care brand Metis Dental Care, is planning to do a global roll out of dental labs and a part of it will be through acquisitions. It plans to acquire dental labs in the US besides companies engaged in technologies for products related to dental labs. Simultaneously it is trying to build its user base for existing dental chain.
As it expands globally, Leixir seeks to build a hub-and-spoke model where it will create one hub in India so that the manufacturing and back-end services can be done from India eventually. It is setting up a hub in Delhi NCR which is scheduled to be functional in 18 months.
Harmeet Bindra, founder and CEO of Leixir, said, “The hub-and-spoke business model of Leixir’s group companies combines touch and technology with scale efficiencies to be the most cost efficient, one-stop solution provider to the dental offices in North America.”
Intellecap acted as an advisor to Leixer in this transaction.
Over the last few years a number of dental chains in India have attracted venture capital and private equity funding with investments worth $2-10 million. There have also been a few M&As in this space.
PE/VC-funded players in this business include Axiss Dental, MyDentist, Smile Merchants and Denty’s. Apollo White Dental is another large player in the space. Click here for more on what’s driving the dental industry.
For IvyCap Ventures, a venture capital fund anchored by the alumni trust, this is the third new investment this year. Its other two recent investments include FieldEz and Vinculum.
Last year it had invested in Reuters Market Light and Aujas Networks.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
