Dialysis network NephroPlus raises $24 mn to expand in India, abroad

Series E round was round led by IIFL Asset Management, with support from existing investors InvestCorp and Bessemer Venture Partners

Asia’s leading dialysis network, NephroPlus, has closed $25 million in a Series E round of funding to pursue growth opportunities across India and select international markets. The current round led by IIFL Asset Management (IIFL AMC) along with investment from existing investors InvestCorp and Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP). The firm said this comes on the heels of notable scale-up that the company has delivered in recent years towards maintaining its dominant market leadership in the dialysis space.  

“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,” said NephroPlus founder and CEO, Vikram Vuppala. “We look forward to not only driving organic and inorganic growth in India and overseas with this capital but also invest in building a unique digital health solution targeted at dialysis patients.”  

NephroPlus co-founder and director of guest services, Kamal Shah, himself on dialysis for over 23 years said NephroPlus was founded with the sole purpose of impacting the lives of dialysis patients positively. “We have come a long way in making high-quality care accessible to tens of thousands of patients in India and now overseas as well,” said Shah. “The pedigree and long-term global investor base we  continue to attract is a testament of the trust NephroPlus has earned not just from the patients, but  also of the potential impact we can make in dialysis at a global level.”

NephroPlus had raised a prior round of funding in 2019 from InvestCorp, one of the leading global private equity investors. In the last two years, it further cemented its market leadership position by adding over 80 centres in India. It entered the Philippines market with the acquisition of Royal Care Dialysis and bagged a significant $100 million dialysis contract in Uzbekistan, which includes building world’s largest dialysis centre in Tashkent. So far, NephroPlus has signed up over 200 reputed hospitals as partners for operating dialysis centres including Fortis Hospitals, CARE Hospitals, Medanta and Max  Healthcare. It has also set up PPP centres in partnership with state governments and operates the country’s largest dialysis centre at Tirupati.

“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,” said Anshuman Goenka, Head Private Equity, IIFL Asset Management. “There are not too many unique scaled-up  market-leading businesses in healthcare like NephroPlus, especially with such a capable management  team.”