Nandan Nilekani invests in affordable eye care startup Drishti

Drishti will utilise the undisclosed capital to expand to six more districts in Karnataka

Bengaluru-based affordable eye care treatment chain Drishti has raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Nandan Nilekani, former chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India.

Drishti, which offers its services in semi urban and rural regions, will utilise the fresh capital to expand to six more districts in Karnataka. It will also help increase capacity in locations where Drishti is already present in - Bengaluru Rural, Chikkaballapur, Ramanagar and Chitradurga.

“Providing affordable health care leveraging technology is a very critical issue. I like Drishti’s approach and believe that the co-founders Kiran and Anjali have their heart in the right place, and want to build a sustainable business with high impact,” said Nilekani.

The company estimates that 1 per cent of India’s population is affected by blindness and 80 per cent of those cases are treatable. While Indian healthcare is often concentrated in urban regions, Drishti is looking to help those outside cities through telemedicine supported vision centres and mobile eye clinics.

Drishti had raised its seed round funding from Lok Capital, an investment fund for impact startups.