Strand Life Sciences, a bioinformatics and integrated and specialized diagnostics company, has raised Rs60-80 crore from private equity firm Quadria Capital, a senior executive of the firm said.
India-based Healthquad fund and Singapore-based Heritas Venture fund, which is a limited partner of Quadria, also participated in the round.
Strand Life Sciences is a business combination of Strand and Triesta Sciences, which was earlier part of Healthcare Global Enterprises Ltd, an oncology hospital chain.
The two entities merged earlier in January.
Founded in 2000, Strand was one of the early entrants in the bioinformatics space, with proprietary data analytical engines for research and clinical applications.
With this fund-raise, the entity aims to grow the business by providing personalized diagnostic techniques and specialized in-house tests to patients.
“With the merger with Triesta Sciences, we are able to now provide almost 3,500 tests. It would also bring a huge number of oncologists who work already within the HCG hospital,” said Amit Varma, managing partner and co-founder of Quadria Capital.
Quadria will invest further capital in the company to support its growth over the next four to five years, he said.
Quadria expects Strand Life Sciences to grow into Asia’s leading integrated and specialised diagnostics company, and become a leading provider of bioinformatics and research services worldwide, he said.
“The demand for specialized diagnostics has been rising rapidly across the region. With diagnostics moving beyond just identification of infections to becoming an integral part of management and therapy, we see a huge potential in this area,” said Verma.
The specialised diagnostics market is one of the fastest growing segments within the Indian diagnostic industry and is expected to be over $700 million by 2020.
“Our entire investment thesis is to specialize in testing. We bring to the table the front- end in HCG, which has Triesta, which brings together doctors and patients, while Strand has a complete in-house R&D and data analytics team. We would bring along a network of hospitals not just in India but also all across South East Asia. We see India as the largest market though it will have services abroad as well,” Varma added.
Quadria Capital is a healthcare-focused private equity firm with assets under management exceeding $1.5 billion and investments in 18 companies across the Asia-Pacific region.
The PE firm was founded in 2010 by Varma and Abrar Mir. Both Varma and Mir held senior positions in Religare Group businesses before starting Quadria.
Source: Mint