SIDBI Venture Capital Ltd (SVCL), through its Samriddhi fund, has invested Rs 25 crores in Glocal Healthcare Systems (Glocal) as part of Glocal’s plan to set up fifty 100-bed secondary hospitals in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Chattisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand. Reportedly, these high quality hospitals will provide affordable healthcare to the most underserved parts of the country.
“With the high quality of leadership and the implementation track record of Glocal, we are very optimistic about the future of this company as well as its ability to deliver high quality and affordable healthcare to people in these areas. Our aim is to ensure that equity capital is available to companies that are building sound socially relevant business that make the common man’s life better. Access to healthcare certainly delivers the benefit.” said Ananta P Sarma, MD & CEO, SVCL. SVCL is a wholly owned subsidiary of SIDBI, incorporated in July 1999. Funds managed by SVCL are: National Venture Fund for Software and Information Technology (NFSIT); SME Growth Fund (SGF), India Opportunities Fund (IOF) & Samridhi Fund. The Department for International Development (DFID), United Kingdom, in association with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), has set up the Samriddhi Fund to provide capital to social enterprises which can deliver both financial returns and positive social impact, in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and West Bengal.
Glocal Healthcare Systems, headquartered in Kolkata, aims to provide affordable secondary level of healthcare in underserved parts of the country. It already has hospitals in Sonamukhi, Bankura; Dubrajpur, Birbhum; Nagar, Murshidabad; Bolpur, Birbhum and Behrampur, Murshidabad. It is in the process of setting up 50 more hospitals in the six, eastern and northern states of the country. It had earlier raised funds from marquee venture capital fund Sequoia and social impact fund Elevar in the first round of financing. “We are very happy to have SVCL join us as an investor. Our ambitious target of taking affordable healthcare to everyone across the country will be strengthened. We have already shortlisted 43 locations and have already registered five lands in Krishnanagar in West Bengal; Amroha in UP; Begusarai and Darbhanga in Bihar and Jeypore in Orissa. Another 22 sites are being closed shortly. We expect all these hospital to become operational in 24 months period,” Dr Sabahat S Azim, CEO & Founder of Glocal said.
Mumbai-based PXV Law Partners and Kochhar & Co were the legal advisors in this transaction while Infrastructure Advisors was the ibankers.
EH News Bureau