Akshara Eye Hospital raises angel funding

By Anuradha Verma

  • 23 Feb 2015

Right Axis Eye Hospital Private Limited, which provides eye care services under the Akshara Eye Hospital brand, has raised $61,000 (Rs38 lakh) in second round of funding from a group of angel investors.

The name of the investors, who are working professionals with technology, medical science and management background, and the quantum of stake, however, are not  disclosed.

The funding would be used to expand ophthalmic service offerings apart from brand building.

Founded by Ashish Kumar, P Rohitha Nayak and Shailesh Kumar, Akshara Eye Hospital offers eye care services like medical retina, cataract care, glaucoma services, pediatric ophthalmology and squint services.

The hospital launched its maiden centre near Bannerghatta Road in South Bangalore in August last year.

While both Ashish Kumar and Nayak are ophthalmologists having worked with Sankara Eye Centre, Narayana Nethralaya, Vasan Eye Care Hospital; Shailesh Kumar, an alumnus of IIM Bangalore, has previously worked with Sapient, HP and Infosys.

DIA Capital Advisors acted as an exclusive financial advisor for the transaction. 

Eye-care segment, which is a high margin business and a mature business model, has seen several firms attracting investor attention. Vasan Healthcare, New Delhi Centre for Sight and Medfort Maxivision are the other prominent funded players in the business.

In the recent past, International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector investment arm of the World Bank, invested about Rs 34 crore in Eye-Q Vision Pvt Ltd.

Also, Vasan Healthcare raised about Rs 300 crore in fresh funds from existing investors namely Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC, Sequoia Capital and WestBridge Capital.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)