Medwell Ventures raises $21m from Mahindra Partners, others

Medwell Ventures, a home healthcare services company, has raised $21 million (Rs 140 crore) in Series B funding led by Mahindra Partners, the $1 billion private equity and venture capital arm of the Mahindra Group, and existing investors including Eight Road Ventures and US-based F-Prime Capital Partners.
The investment will help Medwell, which also runs the Nightingales home healthcare services brand, to expand into other parts of the country including eastern India.Nightingales, which has 13 branches spread across Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Pune, is looking to set up 40 branches over the next three years.
“We took an early position in creating a clinically driven home healthcare model. The closure of this round cements our conviction behind this opportunity to create India’s leading company in this space,” Medwell co-founders Vishal Bali and Ferzaan Engineer said on Wednesday.
Medwell will also build a “care continuum” model, which refers to the more long-term aspects of monitoring a person’s health parameters and intervening with specific care as needed.
The funding is a first by Mahindra in the healthcare sector, which has 14 companies in its portfolio including Scoot Networks, an urban mobility solutions provider based in San Francisco, and Porter, a Mumbai-based online logistics marketplace.
Medwell is focused on ensuring excellence in patient health outcomes through a validated protocol and care plan-driven approach for chronic diseases such as congestive heart failure, stroke management, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorders (COPD), wound care management for diabetics, dementia care, Alzheimer's care and arthritic pain management.
Bali, who previously headed Fortis Heathcare, said Mahindra has put in about $14 million in the funding, got two board seats and obtained a “significant minority stake” in Medwell as part of the investment. Medwell has raised about $35 million till date, including $10 million in Series A from Fidelity Growth Partners India and Fidelity Biosciences.
Medwell said revenue almost quadrupled for the fiscal ended March 2017 compared to the year before, but it declined to provide exact numbers.