Acumen India announces Rs.43 million equity investement in Asian Health Alliance
Acumen India announced a Rs. 43 Million ($750,000) equity investment in Asian Health Alliance, a company that owns and operates affordable and quality medical diagnostic facilities in low income semi-urban areas and rural areas across Karnataka under the brand name Asian Health Meter (AHM) at prices which are significantly lower than large, metro centric diagnostic chains. This is Acumen India’s 6th investment in healthcare sector. They have already invested in Ziqitza Health Care Limited, Vision Spring, PVRI, LifeSpring and Drishtee.
Despite the disease burden increasing in India, a majority of treatment decisions are still taken without any form of diagnosis and the options for diagnostics services are limited to low quality, pathologist/technician-run local clinics that offer limited sample of tests and often inaccurate reports or high-end, expensive diagnostic chains.
AHM provides diagnostic service in communities where 80 percent of the population earns less than Rs.15,000 a month family income. With access to these diagnostic services, the total cost of treatment to patients is reduced, conditions are detected and diagnosed earlier and accurately, and patients are able to choose more effective and often less expensive and less invasive treatments.
“There is a massive unmet need in how we diagnose medical conditions in our country, especially for the urban and semi-urban poor. We believe the Asian Health Meter model has the potential to significantly change that by offering services that save time, money and in some cases, lives,” said Sachin Rudra, India Country Director, Acumen.
Acumen’s investment is expected to enable the company to expand its radiology and pathology services in the region using a hub and spoke model. The company is planning to run 30 centres by 2016 and to conduct nearly three million tests by 2020.
Tara Mohapatra, founder and CEO of Asian Health Alliance shared that they are focused on providing quality, accessible and affordable medical diagnostics to communities where there currently are none and in partnership with Acumen, they will be working to fill a gap in services for those who need it most.
Since 2001, Acumen has invested more than $89 million in 81 companies across South Asia and Africa out of which $30 million USD has been invested in India. These investments focus on a wide range of sustainable, scalable businesses—in agriculture, housing, health, water and energy—that use market-based approaches to deliver products and services to millions of rural and urban poor.
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