Health Vista India Pvt Ltd, that runs home healthcare company Portea Medical, has raised $37.5 million (Rs 247 crore) in a Series B round of funding led by existing investor Accel Partners. World Bank’s investment arm International Finance Corporation (IFC) and other existing investors Qualcomm Ventures and VenturEast also participated in this round, it said during the weekend.
IFC had separately said that it would invest $7 million while the rest will come from other existing investors.
Founded by Zachary Jones and Karan Aneja, Portea was acquired by the venture building platform led by serial entrepreneur couple Meena Ganesh and K Ganesh.
In 2013, Portea raised $9 million (Rs 48 crore then) in its Series A round from Accel, Qualcomm Ventures and VenturEast in December 2013.
Portea said it would use the latest investment to fuel the company’s expansion in India where it currently operates across 24 cities. A part of the funding will go into its expansion in overseas markets such as Malaysia where it already provides services in four cities.
In India, Portea claims to handle 60,000 visits to patients’ homes in a month. It has more than 3,000 staff and plans to recruit 5,000 more employees over 18 months. The new hires would be primarily nurses, physiotherapists and trained care givers in existing centres.
“The investment will primarily go into building a lot more depth in our services in the 24 cities we currently operate in India,†Meena Ganesh, MD and CEO of Portea Medical, told VCCircle. “We are seeing a rapid growth—from 30 visits a day in January 2014 we have grown to 2,000 visits a day now. We see ourselves growing five times in 18 months,†she said.
She said the company focuses on vertical growth—in building specialisation such as home care for cancer patients.
Arun Mathew from Accel Partners has joined Portea’s board of directors following this investment. San Francisco Bay Area-based Mathew is principal at Accel Partners and represents the venture capital firm in half a dozen US and Indian companies, including BookMyShow and Freshdesk.
This is an unusually large transaction for Accel Partners that positions itself as an early stage investment firm with several deals in the seed stage. Given that it led the investment round it would have put in at least $8-10 million. It did not say if Accel Partners US fund also participated in the deal.
In few deals Accel Partners has invested in Indian startups through both India-focused and US VC funds. Most recently, the two funds invested in online insurance broker Coverfox. Accel India had raised $305 million in its latest fund and the firm had expanded its investment strategy to also pursue growth equity deals.
Pravan Malhotra, IFC’s venture capital lead for South and Southeast Asia, said, “Portea’s model of providing affordable and quality care for patients in their homes ensures that hospital infrastructure and beds can be utilised for more critical medical cases and procedures. Our investment in the company will also help them create jobs and a skilled workforce, thus creating opportunity in tier two and tier three cities in India.â€
Home healthcare in India has seen strong growth in the last two years with a few organised players attracting venture capital investment. Vishal Bali-led Medwell Ventures raised $10 million from investors, including Fidelity Growth Partners, in June this year.
US-based Bayada Health Healthcare had picked 26 per cent in Chennai-based India Home Healthcare two years ago.
Noida-based Health Care At Home India, backed by Burman family who are promoters of Dabur, is trying to raise $15 million.
