Tata Group to invest Rs 110 crore in health tech firm Karkinos

Comprehensive oncology platform Karkinos has closed a funding round with the Tatas with an investment commitment of Rs 110 crore, according to industry sources.

Tata group plans to invest about Rs 35 crore immediately and put in the rest of the capital in tranches, to take a minority stake in Karkinos Healthcare.

When contacted, a Tata Sons spokesperson confirmed the development.

Karkinos, founded by former Tata employees R Venkataramanan and Ravi Kant along with former BCCI Chief Operating Officer Sundar Raman, also has medical entrepreneur Shahvir Nooryezdan and Avanti Finance COO, Manish Thakkar as its co-founders.

The Mumbai-based Karkinos is focussed on addressing clinical needs through a digitally enabled distributed network, that will bring quality care closer to patients in the cancer care.

The healthcare platform is also finalising an additional round of funding from some of the leading business leaders, including Ratan Tata, Venu Srinivasan, Ronnie Screwvala, Bhavish Aggarwal among others, sources said.

The company is pioneering the Distributed Cancer Care Network model in India which recently found mention in Lancet Oncology, a leading medical journal.

The company is already offering its services in Kothamangalam, Chotanikkara, Todhapouzha in Ernakulam District, in Kerala and is aiming to ramp up its operations during the year.

The Tatas have been aggressively pursuing their interest in healthcare with green field and brown field ventures.

They have forayed into Covid testing and diagnostics with Tata Medical, tele-consultation with Tata Health and acquired a majority stake in online pharmacy company 1MG which has subsequently been rebranded as Tata1MG.