<article>NephroCare Health Services Pvt. Ltd, which runs a chain of kidney care clinics under the NephroPlus brand, said on Friday that it was in talks with potential investors to raise around Rs.100 crore to fund expansion plans.
The company declined to name the investors it is talking to, but said existing investors International Finance Corp. (IFC), an arm of the World Bank, and Bessemer Venture Partners will take part in the fresh round of fundraising.</article>

NephroCare Health Services Pvt. Ltd, which runs a chain of kidney care clinics under the NephroPlus brand, said on Friday that it was in talks with potential investors to raise around Rs.100 crore to fund expansion plans.
The company declined to name the investors it is talking to, but said existing investors International Finance Corp. (IFC), an arm of the World Bank, and Bessemer Venture Partners will take part in the fresh round of fundraising.
NephroPlus raised $10 million (Rs.60 crore) in a Series B round from IFC and existing investor Bessemer in June 2014. Bessemer also invested $4.25 million (Rs.23 crore) in a Series A round in 2011.
“Our plan is to double our dialysis network to 150 centres in next one year, and grow to 500 in coming four years,” said Vikram Vuppala, founder and chief executive of NephroPlus, which has 75 centres across 15 states.
Vuppala said the demand for dialysis is expected to rise manifold as the Union government begins funding states for setting up dialysis centres in every district hospital across the country in a public private partnership (PPP) mode under the National Health Mission.
On Friday, NephroPlus announced that it will be offering dialysis services across 13 district government hospitals in Andhra Pradesh in the PPP mode. The PPP centres will offer patients free dialysis treatment, which will be reimbursed by the state government.
The dialysis chain said it’s also bidding for projects under PPP mode in several states.
Dialysis is an artificial process to filter harmful wastes, salt, and excess fluid from blood for people with kidney failure.
According to government data, about 220,000 new patients with end-stage renal disease get added in India every year, resulting in additional demand for 34 million dialysis sessions.
With approximately 4,950 dialysis centres in India, largely in the private sector and concentrated in the major towns, the demand is only half met. Every dialysis session costs about Rs.2,000—an annual expenditure of more than Rs.3 lakh.
Besides, most families have to undertake frequent trips, often over long distances, to access dialysis services, incurring heavy travel costs and loss of wages.
In an effort to make dialysis more affordable and accessible to patients suffering from kidney failure, finance minister Arun Jaitley in his budget speech proposed setting up dialysis centres in every district hospital across the country under a new programme called National Dialysis Services Programme.
In order to reduce the cost of dialysis, the finance minister also proposed exemption from basic customs, excise and special additional duties on certain parts of dialysis equipment.
<h4>This article was first published on <a href="http://www.livemint.com/Companies/oAYRYFwqrJDMZPCESxQLSN/NephroCare-in-talks-to-raise-Rs100-crore-plans-to-set-up-50.html">Livemint.com</a></h4>

India: NephroCare in talks to raise $15m; IFC, Bessemer may repeat invest too

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