Jashvik Capital to acquire over 50% stake in Hyd-based eye care chain | Company Business News
Private equity (PE) firm Jashvik Capital Advisory Llp is acquiring a majority stake in Smart Vision Eye Specialities Pvt. Ltd, a Hyderabad-based eye care hospital chain, said a person close to the deal.
The person, however, didn’t disclose the quantum of the investment.
Smartvision Eye Hospitals is the second-largest eye care hospital chain in the Andhra Pradesh-Telangana region after Quadria Capital-backed Maxivision Eye Hospitals.
Founded in 2016, the chain has 11 hospitals across the region and is growing at a rate of about 30% annually, the person said on the condition of anonymity.
The company clocked in a revenue of ₹100 crore and an Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) of ₹35 crore in the last fiscal year.
The company plans to use the funds raised to expand in South India. “The plan is to extend to at least all over South India in the initial 12-18 months,” the person added.
Emails sent to Jashvik Capital and Smartvision on Thursday did not elicit a response.
This investment is the latest in a slew of PE investments in single-speciality eye care hospitals, indicating robust growth in the segment.
Earlier this month, TPG Capital and Temasek-backed Dr. Agarwals Eye Hospital, a leading eye care services provider, got the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) nod for its proposed initial public offering (IPO).
In May 2024, PE firm ChrysCapital invested up to $100 million in New Delhi-based Centre for Sight. In July 2023, Maxivision Eye Hospital secured a ₹1,300 crore investment from healthcare-focused fund Quadria Capital. ASG Eye Hospital raised ₹1,500 crore from General Atlantic and Kedaara Capital in July 2022. Healthcare-focused PE InvAscent invested ₹70 crore in Sharp Sight Eye Hospitals in 2020.
The person said investors see a lot of potential for eye care to be scaled in the way other single specialities like IVF have been growing recently, as a shift from unorganized to organized chains is underway.
“The number of such [single-speciality] centres by organized players has grown approximately 10x over the past decade, with patients increasingly preferring these models for their curated care journeys, superior experiences, and improved clinical outcomes,” Akshay Ravi, healthcare partner at EY, told Mint.
“Multiple micro-markets across various cities still lack access to these high-quality centres… the sector is well-positioned for double-digit growth in the years to come, with both patients and clinicians recognizing the clear advantages of specialized centres over multi-speciality hospitals in specific areas,” he added.
Jashvik Capital’s first fund targets a corpus of $350 million and invested $25 million in Bengaluru-based medtech firm Futura Surgical in June 2024.
