Venture debt firm Alteria Capital Advisors LLP has invested Rs 25 crore ($3.6 million at current exchange rates) in Bengaluru-based healthcare services venture Healthvista India Pvt. Ltd, which provides home healthcare services under the Portea Medical brand.
The investment, which is the second healthcare bet from Alteria’s maiden fund, is a structured-debt transaction with a small portion of equity as well, said Alteria Capital co-founder and managing partner Vinod Murali.
Portea, which is backed by several venture capital funds including International Finance Corporation (IFC), will use the money to add new verticals and improve service offerings besides acquiring talent, growing in present geographies and expanding to newer markets.
The debt funding is part of the Rs 275-crore corpus that Alteria has already deployed in past deals. Documentation is in process for additional investments that will be announced shortly, Murali said.
Healthvista offers services in four major segments — primary care, chronic disease management, elder care and post-operative care. It offers services such as physiotherapy, doctor consultations, new mother-and-baby care, specialty pharmacy, nutritional wellness, diabetic care, surgery discovery and tele-consultation.
The company was originally incorporated in 2012 and founded by Zachary Jones and Karan Aneja. It was acquired by serial entrepreneurs Meena Ganesh and K Ganesh in 2013.
“Venture debt is a great alternate source of capital for high-growth businesses like Portea,” said the company’s chief executive officer Meena Ganesh.
India’s home healthcare industry was worth $2 billion in 2014 and has been growing at 20% annually, according to accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The booming sector has caught the attention of entrepreneurs and investors alike.
In November 2017, Portea had raised $26 million (Rs 168 crore) in a Series C round led by new investors Sabre Partners and MEMG CDC.
At that time, MEMG CDC Ventures’ managing director Harinarayan Sharma had said that Portea may hire or engage close to 6,000 people in two years and will upgrade the skills of its personnel.
Portea’s other investors include Accel Partners and Qualcomm Ventures.
IFC, along with Accel Partners, Qualcomm and Ventureast, had invested $37.5 million in Portea in 2015 in a Series B round of funding.
In 2013, Portea had raised $9 million in its Series A round from Accel, Qualcomm and Ventureast.
Alteria Capital
The venture debt firm was founded last year by Murali and Ajay Hattangdi, who were former top executives at venture debt provider InnoVen Capital India Pvt. Ltd.
Alteria Capital had marked the first close of its debut fund with commitments of Rs 356 crore ($54.76 million) in March this year.
The fund, which seeks to raise Rs 1,000 crore ($154 million), currently has crossed Rs 625 crore in commitments, which includes anchor investments from IndusInd Bank and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).
It has done more than 10 deals. The venture debt firm had made its first investment in ready-to-cook food startup Fingerlix.
It followed this up with investments in Sachin Tendulkar-backed celebrity fashion firm Universal Sportsbiz Pvt. Ltd and Mumbai-based ed-tech startup Toppr Technologies Pvt Ltd.