NephroPlus to raise Rs 100 crore to fund expansion

Hyderabad-based dialysis services chain NephroPlus was in the process of raising Rs 100 crore to fund the future expansion.

"We will be closing the deal soon," Vikram Vuppala, chief executive and founder of NephroPlus told Business Standard. The existing investors, who hold a minority stake in the company, were also expected participate in the fresh round of fund raising exercise, according to Vuppala.

Touted to be the country's largest dialysis provider network with 75 centres across 15 states in India, NephroPlus has recently won a contract from Andhra Pradesh government to establish 13 dialysis facilities in each of the 13 district government hospitals in the state. Under the agreement, the company will provide dialysis services in these hospitals for 7 years. The contract also has a provision for extension of the contract period for 5 more years based on a mutual consent.

NephroPlus will be investing about Rs 15 crore on the 13 dialysis facilities that would be up and running in the next couple of months, according to the company.

The company won the bid under stiff competition by quoting Rs 967 per dialysis, while the market price for a dialysis treatment ranges from Rs 1,500 in places like Hyderabad to as high as Rs 2,500 in Delhi and other Metros.

"We were stretching ourselves in a very aggressive way as we hope to get a break even in a year an year or two on this new investment. We expect to do 1,500-2,000 dialysis treatments per month in each of the 13 centres," Vuppala said. The company said it would be introducing remote monitoring system that supervises dialysis units including the dialysis machines and RO plants eliminating clinical errors

NephroPlus had raised Rs 60 crore in the previous round from the World Bank about two years ago. It had initially raised Rs 25 crore from a group of investors about four-and-a half years ago.