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COVER STORY
NEPHROPLUS- AT A GLANCE
Founded by: Vikram Vuppala and Kamal Shah
Funds raised so far: Rs 200 crore from the investors including
Bessemer Venture Partners, IFC and SeaLink Capital.
No of dialysis centres: 176
No of cities it has footprints in: 97
Usual bed capacity per centre: 10 to 15
Cost of establishing per bed: Rs 8 lakh to Rs 12 lakh
Number of dialysis treatments per year : 15,50,000- DaVita Care
India’s network
of 22 centres was
recently acquired by
NephroPlus.
have many more growth opportunities
due to our much larger scale of operations
and international expansion plans. What
amazed everyone was the speed with which
NephroPlus system executes various activi-
ties such as handing over the new ID cards
and new uniforms to the employees of
DaVita India, a day after the acquisition.
You are planning to raise Series D funding...
Yes, we are in talks with multiple investors
to raise Rs 150 crore in series-D funds over
the next few months. The funds are being
raised mainly towards fuelling international
expansion while we will continue to grow
and focus on India market.
Please share details about your plans for
the international markets...
We are planning to expand our presence
in South East Asia and the Middle East,
where we plan to have at least 20 dialy-
sis centres over the next two years. This
would be through JVs with strong local
partners in those countries. There has been
strong interest from various prospective
partners considering that we are the larg-
est network in India and that we would
bring scale efficiencies as well as clinical
and service standards excellence to those
geographies as a key differentiation. The
partners could be hospital networks, insur-
ance companies or any large life sciences
player. We would hire local talent to man-
age those centres as market dynamics vary
from country to country.
The cost of the treatment would be com-
petitive compared to local prices in each
country. In India, we offer dialysis at 30$
per session, as against 60 to 70$ in South
Asian Countries and 200 to 300$ in the
Middle East.
In what ways is dialysis care different in
India vis-à-vis the west?
In the west, dialysis treatment cost is borne
by the Government or the private insur-
ers. So the highest quality of treatment
is provided without a thought about cost
implications. India has 10 lakh patients who
require dialysis on a regular basis, however,
affordability is the main challenge in dialy-
sis care in India. In India, we offer dialysis
at one tenth the price of western countries,
yet only 12.5 to 13% of patients needing di-
alysis can afford the treatment that comes
to around Rs 15,000 to 25,000 per month.
Also, while thrice a week dialysis is required
for leading a good quality of life and strictly
followed in the west, only 25-30% go for it
in India due to lack of affordability. Major-
ity go for twice a week dialysis. There is also
a huge shortage of trained manpower and
also nephrologists in India. There are more
Indian origin nephrologists in the US than
nephrologists in India! Also, the slightly3