Promantra Synergy to raise $5mn PE fund

Promantra Synergy Solutions Limited, a Hyderabad-based integrated healthcare business process outsourcing (BPO) company, is planning to raise a $5-million (approximately Rs 50 crore) first round of private equity (PE) fund.

“The fresh capital will be infused into creating infrastructure for future expansion and building new technologies besides starting a full-fledged marketing team. We are in talks with a couple of PE firms and a deal is expected to be closed by next quarter,” Ch Sai Giridhar, chief executive officer of Promantra Synergy, told Business Standard.

Promantra, which is touted as the only company outside the US that provides long-term healthcare services including medical coding, medical billing and collections, is looking at doubling its headcount to over 600 by the end of the next financial year.

“We are planning to scale up our workforce to 500 in the next six months at our current facility, while the rest will be added by the end of 2009 at a new facility that we plan to take on lease in the city,” Giridhar said.

The company had developed a new process called the virtual patient care or clinical process outsourcing (CPO) with a 25-member team comprising doctors, nurses and pharmacists for the US hospitals and nursing homes in 2007.

“There is tremendous shortage of nurses in the US making it difficult for the healthcare centres to do the billing in time. The CPO process helps the nurses in checking documentation and analysing quality of care. This process is expected to contribute 20 per cent to our overall revenues this year,” he said.

The company, with its quality assurance centre at Pocatello in the Idaho state, has 12 clients in the healthcare domain in the US. It hopes to add four more clients in the coming quarter. “We expect our revenues to grow two-fold to $8 million (around Rs 40 crore) this financial year on the back of the increasing demand from our clients for CPO services,” Giridhar said.