Home healthcare start-up Portea Medical has received $37.5 million in Series B funding led by Accel. International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, Qualcomm Ventures and Ventureast also participated in this round.

The fresh funding will be used to fuel the company’s expansion in India, where it currently operates across 24 cities and handles 60,000 visits/per month to patients’ homes; to expand in Malaysia; and ramp up its headcount from 3,000 employees at present to 8,000 employees over the next 18 months.

Portea had previously received $9 million in Series A funding from Accel, Qualcomm Ventures and Ventureast in December 2013.

“Portea is addressing a really deep problem in the country by making home healthcare conveniently accessible at the point of care, especially for the elderly. Today, the country has 120 million people, who are 65 years and above and this number is growing rapidly. The 80 years and above population is growing even faster.

“While treatment can happen in a hospital/nursing home, healing can only happen at home over time.

“We focus on providing elder healthcare, primary healthcare, post-hospitalisatio0n care, chronic disease management and allied services such as diagnostics and medical equipment on hire; bringing a gamut of healthcare services to a patient’s home,” Meena Ganesh, MD and CEO, told BusinessLine .

She said the funding will be used to provide services in each location that Portea currently operates in; build consumer-end technology that will help them access Portea’s services with convenience and ease; and build medical specialisation to be able to offer patients, services specific to different health-related problems.

Portea’s range of services includes physiotherapy, doctor consultations, care+packages, nursing, medical equipment, trained attendants and lab tests.

Portea is targeting a market opportunity of over $5 billion for its services; a market that is growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 15-16 per cent.

The company has grown from 30 visits a day to patients’ homes in January 2014 to 2,000 visits a day, at present. Portea has partnered with over 40 hospitals and a network of referring physicians all over India.

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