TVS Shriram invest in Medfort Hospitals for significant minority stake

Medfort Hospitals Pvt. Ltd (Medfort), a healthcare delivery business focused on eye and diabetes, has attracted investment of nearly Rs. 60 Cr from TVS Shriram Growth Fund and ePlanet Ventures.

Medfort has been founded by Dr. G.S.K. Velu who is serial entrepreneur with 25 years experience in healthcare brings with him a lot of relationships. He has experience of scaling up two other healthcare ventures as promoter in Metropolis Healthcare, chain of diagnostic laboratories Trivitron Healthcare, a medical devices company. The professional management team is being lead by Gaurav Malhotra as CEO.Gaurav is a senior healthcare professional grounded on extensive 16years experience of consistently delivering sustainable profitable growth across different product categories like medical devices, diagnostics, equipments and pharmaceuticals products. Gaurav was previously working as Business Head (India & SAARC) of Bausch & Lomb and Johnson & Johnson Medical.

TVS Shriram Growth Fund, managed by TVS Capital Funds Ltd, has taken a significant minority stake. EPlanet Ventures has also co-invested in the company.

Dr Velu, Chairman, Medfort Hospitals said "Medfort will primarily focus on creating a National Eyecare/Diabeticnetwork across the emerging markets of the world. The synergies between Vision Care and Diabetes Care have been the reasons for Medfort focusing on both businesses together.The investment by TVS /ePlanet ventures would enable Medfort to scale up its operations, both organically and inorganically, with access to sufficient capital base."

Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman and Managing Director, TVS Capital said "We are very excited to partner with Dr. Velu in Medfort Hospitals to target eye care and diabetes treatment across India, which we believe have underserved patient populations and present good growth dynamics"

Gaurav Malhotra, CEO, Medfort Hospitals said "Our vision is to achieveleadership in Healthcare through Clinical Excellence and compassionate Patient Care.In the wide supply gap existing across all segments of India’s healthcare delivery market, it is critical to focus on the right segments to maximize value. Medfort has identified Diabetes Care& Vision Care as the segments to target initially.In a market with growing opportunities, there are very few organized players. There is a Pan-India market leader position that is yet unoccupied in both the Diabetes Care and Vision Care segments.Medfort believes that these market segments, with the inherent mis-match between burgeoning demand and largely unorganized supply, are at an inflexion point in their maturity graph. Medfort believes that capital-backed consolidation can be the execution vehicle to build a Pan-India business in these segments in quick time."

Suresh Raju, Executive Director, TVS Capital said "Medfort’s focus on healthcare delivery fits well with TSGF’s focus on consumption driven opportunities and provides us exposure to significant macro driven opportunities in eye care and diabetes. Medfort brings professional management expertise to healthcare domain to address the delivery aspects of eye care and diabetes"

Asad Jamal Chairman and ChandrasekarKandasamy, Managing Director, ePlanet Ventures said "We are very excited to invest in Medfort Hospitals as we believe in the Company's growth prospects. Both Vision Care and Diabetes Care is expected to grow significantly in the coming years and we believe that Medfort would be one of the leading players in these segments. The investment further widened the breadth of ePlanet Venture’s substantial portfolio in the Life Sciences, Healthcare and Medical Devices sector, and we intend to leverage on our expertise to assist Medfort in its domestic and international growth prospects".

Veda Corporate Advisors Pvt Ltd acted as exclusive advisors to Medfort in this transaction.