Pioneering with Excellence in Fertility Treatments

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 10: As the co-founder of Oasis Fertility, Kiran has built the organization from scratch from a bootstrapped venture to a leading chain of fertility centres in India.
He was responsible for defining the vision of Oasis, values, and leadership owing to which it has now gained the reputation of quality healthcare brand in India in the field of reproductive medicine.
With an eye on our values, Kiran oversees the strategy to build Oasis into an ethical, trustworthy, accessible, and professionally run healthcare service organization. Prior to his entrepreneurial journey, Kiran was an IT and Management Consultant with over 16 years of experience in IT, banking, and financial services. He spent most of his corporate career in UK before moving back to India in 2009.
Carrying forward his consulting experience, Kiran also created a unique and futuristic web-based IVF information management solution called Artis, which streamlines an IVF centre’s processes and provides simple and effective management of fertility treatments for clinicians, embryologists, and patients as well. This technology platform laid the foundation and plays a key role in scaling up Oasis operations pan-India.

He is an engineering graduate from CBIT, Hyderabad, and an alumnus of the INSEAD Business School.
Kiran Gadela talks about Oasis Fertility’s growth and the market scenario in the Fertility industry.

Tell us about your challenges faced in the journey as an organization.

It is ironic, that in a country like India, which is the second-most populous country, infertility as a condition among couples is a growing problem. With a population demographic of more than 65% of people being under 35, infertility is a much bigger challenge than what is being currently estimated. A 2015 Ernst and Young report estimated that 27.5 million couples in India want to have children but are unable to do so naturally. It is also considered a taboo topic here and because of that people are too uncertain of seeking treatment due to lack of awareness. And it does not help matters that there is a burdening expectation for every couple out there to start a family.
We, at Oasis Fertility, want to change this. We want to encourage people to talk because that is the most important step. Often, simple lifestyle changes and medication is all it takes to solve the problem.
It has been ten years since we started Oasis Fertility with this intention in mind and it has been an enriching journey for sure, both in terms of learning as well as unlearning. Being a first-generation entrepreneur, I had no prior experience of starting a business. It was a challenge initially but it has been a humbling experience — from the business aspect of it as well as the service aspect.
With 15 centres operational pan India, and with over 400 employees including a highly qualified and experienced team of 100+ medical professionals helping couples achieve their dream of parenthood, it has been a satisfying journey so far.
Every healthcare services organization has its own set of challenges. At Oasis Fertility, when it comes to prioritizing the stakeholders, it’s always patients, patients, patients first, followed by employees, doctors, shareholders, and then, the promoters. Over the last decade, we have seen significant progress in the healthcare sector. In this age of information, patients are much more cognizant of the evidence-based nature of medicine, the processes, the brand, and the overall offering by a team of professionals. So, it is important for us to constantly uphold that.

How Oasis Fertility is different apart from the industry?

At Oasis Fertility, there is a relentless emphasis at all times on putting the patient first at the centre of the journey – everything else will follow. In the long-term, this builds the necessary trust and makes the organization a formidable brand.
Oasis Fertility is a comprehensive healthcare provider in the field of reproductive medicine and advanced infertility treatments. In simple terms, we’re an organization that helps couples live their dream of reaching parenthood with the least amount of hassle and stress. All of this is done - with our values: 5 Cs as the bedrock foundation - Compassionate, Competent, Customized, Confidential, and Careful.
It is important to point out that the differentiation is more evident in the outcome of the work that we had put in for our patients, rather than a conscious effort to be different.

A few interventions in this respect are:

• In terms of patient experience, we have a very deep engagement and feedback mechanism and continuously work to improve and measure our service levels. We have developed a strong tech platform and we leverage that for communication and process improvements.

• Our medical experts and scientists regularly conduct and participate in both national and international conferences and continuous medical education programs (CMEs) to be on top of the advancements that are happening in the field of reproductive medicine.

• We have a dedicated budget and a department looking at innovation, research, and training.

• We have invested in a state-of-the-art stand-alone training facility with the latest technologies using mock labs and simulators, and we have nationally accredited courses, postgraduate programs, and super specialty programs for doctors and scientists. We do this in collaboration with the best of academia in reproductive medicine and other global experts and help the doctors upgrade their skills.

At Oasis Fertility our objective is not necessarily to be the market leader in this specialty but to be the most respected and trusted institution in this segment in India.

Given the situation of male infertility, are there any observations to compare its occurrence as compared to female infertility?

According to a report by the Indian Society of Assisted Reproduction, 10-14% of the Indian population suffers from infertility. This amounts to roughly one in every six couples in urban India. Infertility is often seen as a woman's issue, although, in recent times, more and more people are being educated to understand that infertility can occur in both females and males at an almost equal percentage.
According to a 2018 report by the World Health Organization on the status of infertility in India, of all infertility cases, approximately 30-40% is due to male factor infertility, owing to the reproductive anomalies in the male, while female infertility accounts for the other 40-50% of infertility cases. And we observe that there is a significant increase in the male infertility factor in the last few years.

What are the growth rate of Oasis Fertility in the last three years and target for FY? What are your views on the market size of the ART and IVF segment in India?

The average CAGR for Oasis has been around 40% in the last 3 years and despite the pandemic, we were able to sustain the growth. 2021-2022 we target to grow by 60%. According to a report published by Allied Market Research, the Indian IVF services market size was valued at $478.2 million in 2018 and is estimated to reach $1,453.0 million by 2026, registering a CAGR of 14.7% during this period. And the Indian IVF services market is anticipated to grow significantly due to factors such as an increase in the infertility rates, often caused due to increased stress levels, changes in lifestyle, and a surge in the incidence of fertility-related diseases.
However, low awareness toward ART and IVF, as well as the inability of Indians to move past considering this a ‘taboo’ topic, hinders the growth of the India IVF market. A rise in prevalence due to an increase in risk factors such as obesity, stress, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), and other medical conditions is expected to offer lucrative opportunities for market growth in the next five years.
Based on gender, female fertility acquired the largest market share in 2018 owing to the rise in prevalence of female fertility-related diseases such as ovulation disorders, endometriosis, cervical and uterine problems, and so on. Owing to increased awareness regarding male infertility, the market share for this is expected to grow at a fast rate as well.
Based on procedures, ICSI, which is a method of ART, acquired the largest market share in 2018. Based on end-users, fertility clinics in the end-user segment generated the highest revenue in 2018. The fertility clinic segment is the largest and the fastest segment at the moment, owing to the presence of a large number of fertility clinics and the availability and accessibility of different services related to IVF.

How Oasis Fertility is building the trust in couples to opt for IVF, especially during Covid-19?

Oasis Fertility takes the safety of our patients as well as our employees very seriously and as a conscious, evidence-based, and ethical healthcare provider - we have extensive defined SOPs in place for patient and employee safety.
When the first wave started, the teams came together, drawing from the best practices both nationally and internationally, defined COVID safety protocols, and strictly adhere to some. Constant monitoring and reinforcement of the same are carried out as well. We understand the fear and concerns of the public during these tough times and have left no stone unturned when it comes to the safety of our patients. All our fertility specialists and staff have been one of the early people vaccinated as a means of prevention and all our labs, centres are being sanitized round the clock.
Even we encourage the patients to have video consultation during the initial phase of treatment. Several administrative measures including spacing of appointments, and reduction in the duration of time one spends in the clinic have been taken to ensure a safe treatment experience at Oasis.
IVF@Home was a unique initiative launched by us last year through which IVF treatments are being provided at the patient’s home through a contactless patient engagement thereby reducing the number of visits to our clinic. We remain steadfast in our commitment to providing the best quality of treatment even during challenging times, and that is reflecting in the confidence of the patients coming to us for treatment

Analysis of CAGR over the past 12 years in the fertility segment in India

The CAGR before 2012 had been sluggish and in a real sense, there was no comprehensive data available as there were no organised players in the market.
In 2018, it was estimated that the IVF industry would hit the Rs 80 billion mark with a CAGR of 14 percent with 20,000 clinics operating in the country. The fertility segment in Indian has indeed grown 20% CAGR in the last five years, with the total demand for IVF cycles, primarily used for the treatment of infertility, at 1,00,000 in 2015 and about 2,60,000 in 2020. At the moment, the country sees about 2-2.5 lakh IVF cycles in a year and has the potential to do twice as much.
The IVF services market is expected to gain market growth in the forecast period of 2021 to 2028. A report by Data Bridge Market Research forecasts the market to grow at a CAGR of 9.20% in this forecast period. In addition to this, technological advancements and modernization in the healthcare sector and rising research in this sector further create new opportunities for the IVF services market over the next 8-10 years.

Would you like to share any funding strategies and the investors' details?

Oasis Fertility has come a long way since its inception in 2009, as a bootstrapped venture to a PE-funded organization.
The company raised its first institutional growth capital from InvAscent’s India Life Sciences Fund 2 in 2016. InvAscent solely focuses on the life sciences sector primarily in healthcare and pharma. The previous investments of InvAscent include Gland Pharma, Sutures India, and HCG group among others. They have been very good partners for us, and with their support - we have grown multi-fold in the last 4-5 years in terms of our expansion, revenue, and profitability as well. We currently operate 15 centres pan India, and we target to grow to 30 centres by end of FY 2023.