Portea Medical to raise up to $40 million

Kolkata  February 13, 2014: Home healthcare service provider Portea Medical, the fifth start-up of serial entrepreneur K Ganesh and his wife Meena, plans to raise $30-40 million (₹185-250 crore) next fiscal for further expansion. Ganesh and Meena are Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta alumni.

Portea, which recently closed the first round of fund-raising (nearly ₹48 crore) from venture capital firms Accel Partners and Ventureast, will offer affordable hospital-like healthcare services at home on four major areas – chronic diseases, geriatric care, neo-natal and post-operative care.

The firm is betting big on the increasing mobile phone penetration and internet connectivity to expand its footprint across 50 cities in two years.

“To carry out further expansion plans and increasing footprint in 50 cities, we are looking forward to raise another $30-40 million in the first half of next fiscal through the private equity (PE) route,” Ganesh told Business Line.

More than 80 per cent of this funding would be through the PE route, he added.

Having a centralised system in Bangalore for all operations, the firm ensures a doctor’s or a physiotherapist’s visit at your home in just a phone call in six cities – Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad.

Portea has two models now – pay per visit and an annual package. According to Ganesh, Portea’s operations will be launched in Kolkata in March this year.

“We see a potential market in Kolkata as people are quite dependent on super-speciality or multi-speciality hospitals for primary healthcare. Also, they are quite pro-technology,” he said.

Recruitment drive

To match its expansion with adequate manpower, the firm has recruited 250 people, most of them being healthcare professionals, in the past six weeks. “We will be adding 2,000 more people over the next 12 months in different cities,” Ganesh said.- Business Line