To expand access to high quality kidney care services in India, IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, recently invested $7 million in NephroPlus, a dialysis provider. The investment will be used by NephroPlus to expand its network of dialysis centers in India as the company aims to reach over 8,000 patients and help create 1,000 skilled health services jobs in the next five years, almost a third of these will be for women.

NephroPlus already operates 26 dialysis centers across ten states in India. Besides IFC, existing investor, Bessemer Venture Partners, has invested an additional $3 million in NephroPlus.

This is IFC's first healthcare venture capital investment in South Asia, and also the first from IFC's $250 million early stage investment programme.

According to Vikram Vuppala, founder and CEO, NephroPlus, “IFC is a long-term partner for NephroPlus with significant healthcare expertise and a broad network of healthcare clients across emerging markets. The investment will enable NephroPlus to leverage IFC’s global healthcare knowledge and industry relationships with a view to expand our quality dialysis care model in India.”

India remains a highly under-served market for dialysis services. An estimated one million people in India are required to undergo dialysis sessions thrice a week. However, almost nine out of ten people who need dialysis do not have access to it, and it is clinically and financially difficult for hospitals to provide this service. Specialised operators such as NephroPlus help people improve the length and quality of their lives.

“Providing high quality dialysis care in a highly underserved market not only improves quality of life for chronic kidney care patients, but also creates skilled healthcare jobs and boosts growth. High quality dialysis providers with a commitment to operational excellence need to scale up to meet India’s enormous healthcare needs. We are helping NephroPlus do that,” pointed out Pravan Malhotra, venture capital lead for South Asia at IFC.

IFC is the world’s largest multilateral investor in the private health care sector in emerging markets, with financing of over $2.2 billion to 164 private health care and life sciences projects in 53 countries. IFC-supported health projects treat about 12 million patients annually. IFC’s venture capital division provides equity financing to early and growth-stage companies across sectors including clean technology, information technology, healthcare, education, and agribusiness.