Norwest Venture Partners invests Rs 120 cr in Thyrocare

For Thyrocare, this is the second PE investment, after CX Partners had invested Rs 188 cr for a 30% stake in 2010

Thyrocare Technologies Limited, a Mumbai-based medical diagnostics services provider, has raised about Rs 120 crore from private equity firm- Norwest Venture Partners (NVP). Its is learnt that Thyrocare has diluted about 10% stake to NVP. As part of the agreement, Sohil Chand, Managing Director of NVP India, will join Thyrocare's board of directors.

The diagnostics market in India comes about Rs 10,000 crore. Thyrocare's network of 20,000 service centers which spans 1,000 cities across India covers more than 1 lakh doctors through 600 franchisees.

For Thyrocare, this is the second PE investment, after CX Partners had invested Rs 188 crore for a 30% stake in 2010.

India's diagnostic sector has been in the radar of PE majors as the market is growing fast. Early this year, Singapore-based GIC invested $100 million in Vasan Healthcare, while Goldman Sachs invested about Rs 300 crore for 6% stake in Max India last year. In 2010, US-based TA Associates had invested $35 million in Dr Lal Pathlabs.

Private equity fund Avigo Capital Partners had picked up 9.27% stake for Rs 100 crore in a pre-Initial Public Offering (IPO) placement in Super Religare Laboratories (SRL) last year.

A Velumani, MD and CEO of Thyrocare Technologies Limited: "When CX Partners invested, we were motivated and ventured into Nueclear, (the in-vivo segment). Now with NVP investing, we will be exploring global markets."

Norwest Venture Partners manages over $3.7 billion in capital and has funded more than 500 companies.