Dental care chain Denty’s raises INR 27 Cr funding from Helion Ventures
Helion, the multi-stage, India-focused venture fund with over $600 million under management today announced a Series A investment of INR 27 crores in Denty’s, a multi-speciality dental care chain. Helion is the first and only institutional investor in the company. Started in the year 2009, Denty’s now counts over 100,000 satisfied patients across all their 10 clinics in 5 cities in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Denty’s will utilise the funds to expand its presence across the country, and bring up the number of clinics to 150, in five years. Sanjeev Agarwal, Senior Managing Director, Helion and Ritesh Banglani, Director, Helion will join the board of the company.
Helion has consistently focused on scalable, capital-efficient healthcare businesses with a bias for single-speciality business models. Denty’s proved to be a good fit to this investment philosophy. Previous investments include EyeQ, a chain of specialty eye hospitals and LifeCell, India’s largest stem cell bank. Denty’s integrates technology that enables evidence-based dentistry for value conscious patients across tier 1 and tier 2 towns in India. Dental care is a high-growth segment owing to the ample supply of high quality clinical talent, potential to standardise clinical procedures and the relatively low cost of setting up a dental practice. Added to this is the rising incidence of dental illnesses, irrespective of age or geography.
Founders Dr. Sekhar Chennupati and Dr. Rajesh Nandipati bring a combined experience in dentistry and healthcare management. Dr. Sekhar Chennupati, is an oral and maxillo-facial surgeon with an experience of over a decade and a half. Dr. Rajesh Nandipati is a medical doctor with a master’s degree in Healthcare Management from the US. Denty’s launched its first clinic in 2009 in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh and currently operates 10 clinics across 5 cities in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Denty’s is a paperless dental centre; having implementing digitized diagnostic imagery integrated with an electronic health records system since the inception stage.
Speaking on the investment, Sanjeev Aggarwal, Senior Managing Director, Helion said, “We are impressed by the founders’ focus on clinical excellence combined with repeatable and scalable operational processes. Customers across 5 different cities enthusiastically recommend the clinics to their friends and families, giving us confidence in the team’s ability to create a high-quality dental practice nationwide. Dr. Sekhar and Dr. Rajesh bring together a unique blend of domain expertise and operational capability that is critical to building scale in a healthcare business.”
Dr. Sekhar Chennupati, Cofounder, Managing Director, Denty’s added, “The Series A funding from Helion will fuel the replication of our proven, scalable model across the country, enabling us to reach out to a larger population. There is an acute need for standardised delivery of dental care and the existing infrastructure is only touching the periphery of this opportunity.”
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