Portea Medical, run by Health Vista India Pvt. Ltd, is scouting for its fourth acquisition in an endeavour to emerge as the largest home healthcare service provider in the country, chairman Krishnan Ganesh told DEALSTREETASIA.
“We may do one more acquisition this year. The challenge there is that because this is a new business model, there are very few opportunities available,” he said.
In March, Portea acquired medical equipment service provider Health Mantra India Pvt. Ltd for an undisclosed amount in a cash and stock deal. The acquisition will to help Portea penetrate deeper into categories such as respiratory care, geriatric care and orthopedics. This acquisition marked Portea’s third buyout in six months.
In January, Portea picked up a majority stake in Takecare Technology Pvt. Ltd, which owns healthcare start-up PSTakeCare that provides consumers with information on doctors, hospitals and other healthcare service providers. Prior to this, it had acquired specialty pharmaceutical distributor MedybizPharma in November.
In terms of the areas of interest for acquisition Ganesh said, “the entire idea of tele-health, tele-medicine is a big opportunity in this space, also in the area of diabetic or chronic care is a big area of focus and the third is geriatric care. Those are three big areas but there are no companies there in those spaces.”
Portea was founded in 2012 by Zachary Jones and Karan Aneja. It was sold to serial entrepreneurs Krishnan Ganesh and his wife Meena Ganesh in 2013 for an undisclosed amount, in an all equity deal.
In September last year, Portea raised $37.5 million in a Series B funding round led by Accel Partners, with participation from International Finance Corp (IFC), private sector investment arm of World Bank, Qualcomm Ventures and Ventureast. The company had earlier raised $9 million in a Series A round from Accel, Qualcomm and Ventureast in December 2013.
According to Ganesh, while the company was well funded at the moment, it would tap the market again early next year to fuel its aggressive growth plans and overseas expansion.
“We have adequate funding to reach breakeven, but for growing aggressively and acqusition, we will look to raise funds in first quarter of next year,” he said. “Right now the funds that we have are enough for us to reach full profitability.”
While expansion into south east Asian markets is on the cards, the company first plans to double its presence to at least 50 cities from 25 cities currently.
Portea competes with Health Care at Home India Pvt. Ltd, Homital Medcare Pvt. Ltd, Zoctr Health Pvt. Ltd and India Home Health Care, among others. Doctor discovery platforms and practice management solution providers such as Practo Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Lybrate Inc., Qikwell Technologies India Pvt Ltd, and Ziffi have also emerged in the last couple of years, and are also trying to expand their offerings.
As per industry estimates, the home healthcare market in India is pegged at about $2 billion, leading to a growing interest among investors.
Also Read:
India: Home healthcare service provider Portea acquires Health Mantra
India: Portea Medical picks majority stake in health-tech startup PSTakeCare
India: Portea Medical raises $37.5 million in Series B funding led by Accel Partners
