Dialysis chain NephroPlus, backed by Bahrain-based private equity firm Investcorp, has raised $24 million (around Rs 180 crore) Series E funding round led by IIFL Asset Management (IIFL AMC), the company said on Monday. Existing investors InvestCorp and Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) participated in the round, it added.
In the last two years, NehproPlus has added over 80 centres in India, entered the Philippines market with acquisition of Royal Care Dialysis (first overseas acquisition) and bagged a $100 million dialysis contract in Uzbekistan, which includes building the world's largest dialysis centre in Tashkent, according to a company statement.
NephroPlus, operated by Nephrocare Health Services Pvt. Ltd, was founded by Vuppala, Sandeep Gudibanda and Kamal Shah in 2009.
The company raised $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 its then-investor SeaLink Capital, which invested in the company in 2016, while its older investors Bessemer Venture Partners and International Finance Corporation (IFC) retained their stakes.
NephroPlus Founder and CEO, Vikram Vuppala, “While NephroPlus had faced few challenges during the COVID waves, our scale, diversified presence, customer connect, along with strong backward integration on costs has helped us emerge stronger overall. We look forward to not only driving organic and inorganic growth in India & overseas with this capital, but also invest in building a unique digital health solution targeted at dialysis patients.”
Anshuman Goenka, Head Private Equity at IIFL Asset Management, said, “As an integrated dialysis chain with a strong track-record of growth and returns, NephroPlus will continue expanding into new geographies in India and overseas. There are not too many unique scaled-up market leading businesses in healthcare like NephroPlus, especially with such a capable management team.”
Till date, NephroPlus has signed up over 200 hospitals as partners for operating dialysis centres including Fortis Hospitals, CARE Hospitals, Medanta and Max Healthcare. It has also set up PPP (public-private-partnerships) centres in partnership with state governments and operates the country’s largest dialysis centre at Tirupati.
Currently, it operates 275 dialysis centres in more than 170 cities across 23 states in India.
IIFL AMC is part of homegrown IIFL Wealth & Asset Management group, backed by Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa's Fairfax Holdings. Among its recent investment through its IIFL AMC private equity includes unicorn meat brand Licious leading its recent $52 million fund raise.
It also invested in robotics firm Miko, that focuses on creating emotive products. In September, IIFL PE also led $24 million investment in Indian tea brand Vahdam India, first reported exclusively by VCCircle.
IIFL Private Equity, part of IIFL Asset Management, has been active in the private equity ecosystem since late 2015. The PE unit has assets under management of around $3 billion from early-stage to late-stage investments across healthcare, technology, financial services and consumer spaces.