MEdRC EduTech to raise Rs 30 cr by March

MEdRC EduTech has so far invested Rs 22 crore backed by promoters

City-based Medical Education Research Centre for Education Technologies (MEdRC EduTech), an e-learning content production, multimedia software development and animation provider in the medical education space, is looking at raising Rs 30 crore by next month.

“We are in the final stage of discussions with a US-based venture capital fund with fund size of more than $10-billion catering to the healthcare space. The due-diligence process is over, and we may close the deal in a month or a week,” R Guru Moorthy, director of MEdRC EduTech, said.

The money will be used for three major purposes - developing content, expanding infrastructure and marketing activities, and for entering into the retail market (selling digitised content directly to students), he added.
 

MEdRC, which started medical curriculum content digitisation in 2009 on a pilot basis, fully launched the initiative in January last year. "So far, we have covered seven medical colleges and have lined up 14 more colleges to be added this calendar year,” he said. Of the current 361 medical colleges in the country, MEdRC aims at catering to 30 per cent of the colleges over the next three years.

Apart from expanding in the Indian market, the company also plans taking the services to countries like the West Asia, Malaysia and the US by next year. Since inception, MEdRC EduTech has invested Rs 22 crore backed by company promoters.

Quoting the Medical Council of India (MCI) report, Neeraj Raj, managing director of MEdRC EduTech, said, iIn the last 60 years, only 800,000 doctors have been trained in India. Currently, India faces a shortage of around 4 million doctors, nurses, other paramedical staff.

“We see a huge market potential in the segment, as the current market potential for digitised content will be roughly around Rs 600 crore in India,” Moorthy said adding the company expected a two-fold jump in its turnover by this year end to Rs 10 crore, compared with last year.