Qualcomm Ventures, the venture investment arm of Qualcomm Inc, has invested an undisclosed amount in Portea Medical Pvt Ltd, a provider of in-home healthcare services in India, as per a company statement.
Portea, whose services encompass geriatric care, postoperative care, palliative care and physiotherapy, was acquired a year ago by serial entrepreneurs Krishnan Ganesh and his wife Meena. It had raised Rs 48 crore ($8 million) from Accel Partners and Ventureast in its Series A funding last December.
“I am confident that their (Qualcomm Ventures’) technical expertise and guidance will help Portea become the focal point for technology-led solutions to tackle two of India’s biggest challenges—chronic disease management and support for the growing population of elderly in the country,” said Meena Ganesh, chief executive officer, Portea Medical.
Karthee Madasamy, vice president, Qualcomm Ventures India, said, “India’s already strained healthcare infrastructure requires transformational strategies. Wireless technologies are revolutionising healthcare, and with our investment in Portea, we aim to create a technology-based platform to address India’s healthcare challenges.”
Founded by Zachary Jones and Karan Aneja, Portea provides doctors, nurses and physiotherapists for home visits across the country. Last year it was acquired by Krishnan Ganesh and his wife Meena, as part of their plans to foray into the primary healthcare services space.
Portea Medical is looking to raise $ 40 million by the end of this financial year from existing and new investors and is looking to dilute around 25 percent stake. These funds would be utilized to expand to chronic care.
“We in future want to expand to chronic care and also expand our services to the top 50 cities in India and create a brand name for healthcare outside tertiary care. We will be looking at raising funds from existing investors as well as from new private equity investors,” said K Ganesh, chairman, Portea Medical.
Krishnan and Meena are serial entrepreneurs and strategic investors who have successfully started and exited four companies. The couple’s first venture, IT&T, was acquired by iGATE while the second initiative, Customer Asset, was bought by FirstSource (erstwhile ICICI OneSource). The third venture, called Marketics, was sold to WNS and the fourth one, TutorVista, was acquired by the British media group Pearson Plc.
For Qualcomm Ventures, this is the fourth new India investment since January this year. It has recently backed firms such as real estate search site Housing.com, Ineda Systems and Demach Software.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
