Perfint Healthcare Pvt Ltd reported it had raised $7.2 million capital for expansion and investments in a round that was led by Northwest Venture Partners (NVP). The Chennai based medical equipment company said it had raised the amount in the second round of financing that saw existing investors in the company, Accel Partners India and IDG Ventures take part.
According to Perfint, the raised funds will go into the completion its development of a next generation interventional oncology assistance products. Additionally, the company said it would use the money to further its presence in the South East areas of the Asian continent as well as the Middle East, Europe and the United States of America.
NVP India executive director, Mohan Kumar is expected to join Perfint’s board of directors and the company reported that previously, it had already raised about $3.5 million from IDG and Accel in the first round of capital sourcing. Perfint Healthcare is a budding company, begun in 2005 with close links to GE Healthcare India.
S. Nandakumar, Perfint Healthcare co-founder and Chief Executive Officer said the company had already commenced its first product in the country and it has been in the market for 12 months now, reiterating that the company had further plans that will see it utilize a huge amount of the raised capital to grow its business in other emerging markets. Its introductory product, PIGA CT enables doctors to access hard to rich areas in the body such as the lungs, liver, pancreas and kidney via the use of its robotic and imaging processing capability to accurately point these parts out and help in the detection of cancer in its early stages.
As a result, the technology has been pivotal in emerging markets such as India’s in which cancer rates are high and estimates are that it is ever rising. Nandakumar said interventional oncology is prospective $1 billion market when considered in terms of equipments and consumables. It is estimated, according to him that India has around 4,000 to 5,000 CT scanners and every one of these presents a fresh client.
However, he noted that the concept of intervention is still new, and as it is, he assumes that 10 to 15% of the radiologists would be willing to open it. He reiterated that Perfint’s target would be to take the customers 40 to 50%. Its pioneer product PIGA CT has sold around 40 units and the firm announced that it would use the fund to develop its next product.
