CDC and healthcare group launch fund for India, Africa and South Asia

22nd February 2017 Jack Aldane

Indian healthcare research firm Manipal Education and Medical Group has partnered with UK development finance institution CDC to create a US$80 million fund for diagnostic services and home healthcare providers in India, Africa and South Asia.

The fund will invest in companies in India that specialise in diagnoses of diseases through the study of protein molecules, as well as firms in Africa that focus on infectious disease investigations.

A statement on the partnership by CDC says the fund will “target a wide range of ‘out of hospital’ healthcare companies”, meaning its investments will support services to patients who live far from their nearest hospital and require local access to care.

Srini Nagarajan, CDC’s head of South Asia, said that the fund’s aim of investing in companies outside of confined hospital care reflects “a global trend towards patients being treated closer to home and away from traditional hospitals”.

“We’re providing long-term finance to the next generation of businesses that can help transform healthcare services beyond the hospital space, both in India but increasingly in Africa too.”

CDC is allocating around US$150 million each year to private equity funds that invest in South Asia, having around US$1 billion invested in more than 350 underlying companies in the region.

Nagarajan also called the Manipal “a strong operational partner” for CDC, which she said aims to deliver support for the growth of the healthcare sector in India by creating jobs and boosting innovation.

Dr Ramdas Pai, chairman of the Manipal Education and Medical Group, described the companies the group is looking to back as “heavily reliant on new technology to improve quality of service and access,” adding:

“While traditional hospitals will continue to deliver high end care and inpatient services, healthcare providers have realised the need to evolve alternate formats which will complement hospital services and where care can be delivered in “Out of Hospital” set ups and closer to patients’ homes.”

Manipal Education and Medical Group was established in 1953 in Bengaluru, India.

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