Serial entrepreneurs Krishnan Ganesh and his wife Meena have acquired Delhi-based Portea Medical Pvt Ltd, a provider of in-home healthcare services in India, as part of their plans to foray into the primary healthcare services space.
However, the financial details of the deal have not been divulged. “We can’t disclose the transaction details, but post-acquisition, the Portea team will be part of us,†K Ganesh told VCCircle. The development was first reported by The Times of India.
According to K Ganesh, the new venture will leverage technology to deliver healthcare services at the doorsteps of individuals who register with the firm. “The new entity will be a technology-enabled healthcare services provider. We will integrate technology with medical devices to provide the offerings at the doorsteps of the members. We are spending $2 million on the technology,†he added. “The new venture will address the requirements of geriatric, post-operative and chronic patients.â€
A few days ago, VCCircle reported that the couple – best known for setting up the education-cum-consumer internet services firm TutorVista Global Pvt Ltd and selling it to the UK-based Pearson Plc in a $213 million deal – is close to raising $10 million for their new venture in the primary healthcare space.
Founded by Zachary Jones and Karan Aneja, Portea provides doctors, nurses and physiotherapists for home visits across the country. The firm claims that all its doctors are members of international medical accreditation bodies. Its current network includes professionals from five leading hospitals and it is now catering to tier I cities across the country.
Individuals registered with Portea will receive up to two in-home visits a month from its healthcare team at Rs 100-200 per month. Other services include in-home prescriptions and home delivery of medicines, access to the company’s network of specialists (if required), electronic patient records and regular status reports via e-mail.
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.
The husband-wife duo has also incubated and invested in six companies so far. These include online travel guide Mustseeindia.com, online bookstore BookAdda.com, food delivery service Delyver.com, jewellery e-shop BlueStone.com, e-grocery firm BigBasket.com and online ‘prasad’ delivery service OnlinePrasad.com.
(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)
