Finance

Nova Medical Centres Raises Funding for Phase I from NEA and GTI

Company fully funded for Rs-250-crore project

The inauguration of Nova centre at Sadashivnagar

Nova Medical centres, the specialised day care surgery centres, announced the completion of funding wherein the company successfully raised the capital required for their Rs-250-crore project. This investment has been jointly facilitated by two US-based venture capital firms — GTI Group and New Enterprise Associates (NEA).

"This strategic investment provides the much-needed impetus for us at Nova to surge ahead with our expansion plans. We plan to set up 25 specialised day care surgery centres across India in the coming months. Day care surgery is growing to be the most sought after mode of surgical treatment and our centres are equipped with ultra modern facilities and technology to cater to the medical needs of our country," said Girish Rao, Managing Director and CEO, Nova Medical Centres.

Internationally, almost 70 per cent of all surgeries are conducted as day care surgeries, and this trend is on the rise in India as well. "The money raised in the second round of funding by Nova Medical centres will provide the impetus to not just the company, but to the overall development of day care surgery in India, as Nova expands its reach across India," added Rao.

GTI LLC conceived and incubated Nova. The GTI Group is participating in this round of funding, and will continue to provide business leadership and business development acumen to Nova. This will include forging strategic partnerships with internationally renowned healthcare providers, practitioners and regulatory bodies. The GTI Group continues to be the largest shareholder in Nova.

The entry of NEA as an investor is driven by NEA's strong domain expertise in the healthcare sector. NEA is a leading venture capital and growth equity firm with approximately 11 billion USD of committed capital. The firm's 30-year track record of successful investing spans the healthcare, information technology and energy technology sectors. This includes outpatient healthcare facilities in the US.

Bala Deshpande, Senior Managing Director of NEA's affiliate operations in India, said, "We believe day care surgery facilities will play an important role in shaping India's healthcare delivery system, and Nova Medical centres is truly a pioneer in this field. We look forward to working with Nova to make a difference in the medical sector in India." Suresh Soni, Partner, GTI LLC, and Co-Founder and Chairman, Nova Medical Centres, said, "GTI LLC has been associated with Nova Medical centres from the seed funding stage and has incubated the business from its inception. We welcome NEA as co investors in the series A funding and look forward to seeing more day care surgery centres being set up across India in the next couple of years."

EH News Bureau