Modern Family Doctor (MFD) Pvt Ltd, which runs a chain of primary healthcare clinics and pharmacies, has secured a second round of investment from Bamboo Finance with participation of existing investor Saama Capital.
“The lack of good primary healthcare is very apparent in India because hospital outpatient departments are flooded with patients; 70 per cent of whose needs are primary in nature but they have no other option. Going to a hospital means travel, time, inconvenience, exposure to infections and higher expense,” said Naresh Malhotra, CEO and founder of MFD.
Malhotra, former CEO of Café Coffee Day chain, was also an operating partner at Sequoia Capital India.
The company raised its first round of investment of $2 million from Saama Capital in 2011. At present, MFD runs 25 clinics across Bangalore and Pune. With the capital raised in this round, the company plans to reach over 100 clinics, Malhotra said in a release.
“Bamboo Finance was created to support commercially viable businesses that provide access to essential products and services to underserved communities and MFD fits perfectly with our fund’s mission,” said Eric Berkowitz, chief investment officer, Bamboo Finance.
Bamboo Finance, which was launched in 2007, focuses on investing in business models that benefit low-income communities in emerging markets. The firm manages $250 million, representing two global funds and a combined portfolio of 46 investments operating in 25 countries.
“The affordable primary healthcare segment in India is highly underserved. This market need combined with our long-standing relationship with Naresh and our strong belief that he and his team could build rapid scale were our drivers to incubate the company and be the first institutional investor here,” said Ash Lilani, Managing Partner, Saama Capital.
Primary healthcare has caught a lot of investor attention due to highly unorganised nature of the sector apart from factors like low capital expenditure and easy scalability. The deals in this space include Wellspring Healthcare raising $3.6 million from Asian Healthcare Fund-led consortium of investors and NationWide Primary Healthcare raising $4.47 million from Norwest Venture Partners.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
