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Bangalore-based home healthcare firm, Portea Medical, has acquired home medical equipment service provider, Health Mantra India Pvt Ltd. in an undisclosed cash and stock deal.
The development will help expand Portea’s penetration into large home healthcare areas such as respiratory care, geriatric care, orthopedics among others.
Started in 2009 by Ashish Bhutada and Anoop Kodoli, Health Mantra is a Bangalore-based startup that provides home healthcare equipment and services for patients with sleep apnea and respiratory disorders. Besides, it also provide respiratory/oxygen equipment and supplies to hospital ICUs.
Ashish Bhutada, co-founder, CEO and MD of Heath Mantra, said, “Our alignment with Portea provides us a wider canvas to expand our operations across product lines and locations. We are already present across South India and Maharashtra; there is huge untapped demand in these markets as well as elsewhere in the country and we look forward to continuing to serve customers with patient-centric and holistic solutions.”
Health Mantra has a team of over 30+ biomedical engineers, physiotherapists, service staff, and a service network across five states which includes Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh/Telangana, and Maharashtra.
Meena Ganesh, MD & CEO of Portea, said, “Portea is deeply committed to provide our patients with convenient and affordable solutions for all their healthcare needs. Medical equipments are often an integral element of effective home healthcare, especially in areas like diabetes, oncology, orthopedics, geriatric care, sleep and respiratory disorders. Our acquisition of Health Mantra augments Portea’s offering and underlines our customer focus.” She further added, “The Health Mantra team has built a very solid business over the last few years and we are pleased to have the opportunity to tap into their expertise and customer relationships.”
Portea Medical is an in-home medical care which focuses on general primary healthcare, post-hospitalisation care, chronic disease management, and allied services. It offers home visits from doctors, nurses, nursing attendants, and physiotherapists. Apart from that, the startup also provides collection of lab samples and medical equipment on hire, bringing the entire gamut of healthcare services to a patient’s doorstep. Currently, it employs more than 5000 staff and handles in excess of 70,000 home visits a month across India. It has 60+ hospitals as partners and a network of referring physicians all over India.
In November 2015, Portea acquired specialty pharmaceutical distributor MedybizPharma. The company picked up a majority stake in PSTakeCare, a health-tech startup in January 2016.
In September 2015, Portea received Series B funding of $37.5 Mn from Accel, IFC, Qualcomm Ventures, and Ventureast.
The startup is also exploring other investments as the company expands its offerings to tackle the massive challenges brought on by India’s ageing population, the rising burden of NCDs (non-communicable diseases), which already lead to 53% of all deaths and which are expected to account for 67% of deaths by 2030 (Source: Public Health Foundation of India), and the huge gaps in healthcare infrastructure.
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