NephroPlus to expand to overseas

The company plans to raise $30-35 million through Series C funding after two years from now

NephroPlus, kidney care clinics network brand backed by PE firms Bessemer Venture Partners and International Finance Corporation (IFC), is planning to expand its operations to the neighbouring countries and tie up with various State governments in India in near future.

The company is looking at plans to expand operations to overseas, especially in the neighbouring countries where affordable kidney care options are required, and would have a pilot project established in one of the neighbouring countries by 2015, said Sandeep Gudibanda, co-founder and director, business development, NephroPlus.

"The overseas project would be in a pilot basis, mostly in partnership with a local player, who might be in a related sector," he said, while adding that the details are yet to be finalised. The company today launched its 29th dialysis centre in Chennai, in Vee Care Sundar Hospitals. Plans are to add eight more centres in next 45 days, he added.

Besides, the company would also be looking at tie up with State governments and hospitals, where it can manage the dialysis centres cost effectively for the hospitals, through public private partnership. It is currently managing an ESI facility and a hospital in Andhra Pradesh an is working on managing two more centres in Mandhya Pradesh and Goa for the State governments.

"Many of the hospitals, be it in government or in private sector, are losing their money on dialysis and kidney care as there is no economies of scale of specific expertise. We are open to work with them if they outsource it to us, where we have the economies of scale," he added.

The company is looking at expanding its network to 500 centres in next five years, and to achieve this it has a plan to raise around $30-35 million through a Series C funding after two years.

It has recently completed raising around $10 million in a Series B funding, $3 million from Bessemer Venture Partners and $7 million from IFC, an arm of the World Bank. This is expected to support the company to set up 150 centres in three years. It had a Seried A funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, of an undisclosed amount.

There are around 18 lakh people in the country facing health issues related to kidney failure and require dialysis, while only 1.5 lakh people are currently availing the service. Many of the rest are not aware of the disease while others would skip of default the treatment as it is expensive, with around Rs 30,000 required for dialysis every month.