Nova Medical Centers raises funding for phase I from NEA and GTI

Mumbai, May 26th 2010: Nova Medical Centers, the specialised day care surgery center, today announced the completion of the Series A funding wherein the company successfully raised 16 million USD. This investment has been jointly facilitated by two US based venture capital firms - GTI Group and New Enterprise Associates (NEA].

“This strategic investment provides the much needed impetus for us at Nova to surge ahead with our expansion plans. We plan to set up 25 specialised day care surgery centers across India in the coming months. Day care surgery is growing to be the most sought after mode of surgical treatment and our centers are equipped with ultra modern facilities and technology to cater to the medical needs of our country” said Mr Girish Rao, Managing Director and CEO, Nova Medical Centers.

Internationally, almost 70% of all surgeries are conducted as Day Care Surgeries, and this trend is on the rise in India as well. The resounding success of Nova Medical Centers in the first year of its operations stands testimony to the changing medical care scenario in our country. The money raised in the second round of funding by Nova Medical Centers will provide the impetus to not just the company, but to the overall development of day care surgery in India, as Nova expands its reach across India.

GTI LLC conceived and incubated Nova. The initial round of funding saw Nova Medical Centers raise 3.5 million USD from GTI LLC and the key management. The GTI Group is participating in Series A funding, and will continue to provide business leadership and business development acumen to Nova. This will include forging strategic partnerships with internationally renowned health care providers, practitioners and regulatory bodies. The GTI Group continues to be the largest shareholder in Nova.

The entry of NEA as an investor in the Series A funding is driven by NEA’s strong domain expertise in the healthcare sector. NEA is a leading venture capital and growth equity firm with approximately 11 billion USD of committed capital. The firm’s 30-year track record of successful investing spans the healthcare, information technology and energy technology sectors. This includes outpatient healthcare facilities in the US.

Ms Bala Deshpande, Senior Managing Director of NEA’s affiliate operations in India, said, “We believe day care surgery facilities will play an important role in shaping India’s healthcare delivery system, and Nova Medical Centers is truly a pioneer in this field. We look forward to working with Nova to make a difference in the medical sector in India.”

Mr. Suresh Soni, Partner, GTI LLC, and Co-Founder and Chairman, Nova Medical Centers said, “GTI LLC has been associated with Nova Medical Centers from the seed funding stage and has incubated the business from its inception. We

welcome NEA as co investors in the Series A funding and look forward to seeing more day care surgery centers being set up across India in the next couple of years”.

With this investment, Nova Medical Centers is now fully funded to fuel its expansion plan of establishing 25 centers in the country at a budget of Rs 250 crore.