Motilal Oswal PE bets on Mankind Group’s diagnostics biz Pathkind
Motilal Oswal Private Equity, which aims to raise a bigger corpus for its fourth fund than previously planned, said Friday it has agreed to invest in Pathkind Diagnostics Pvt Ltd.
India Business Excellence Fund – IV, a fund managed and advised by MO Alternate Investment Advisors, has agreed to make a primary investment of up to Rs 194.4 crore ($25 million) in Pathkind Diagnostics.
The private equity arm of Mumbai-based Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd had recently upped its target to Rs 4,500 crore ($588 million) in total capital commitments for the new fund. This is higher than the Rs 4,000 crore ($550 million) target it had set when it launched the fourth fund in July last year.
Established in 2016, Pathkind is promoted by Sanjeev Vashishta and the promoters of Mankind Pharma. It operates in the pathology and wellness segment and offers a portfolio of more than 4,000 tests across all the segments including biochemistry, hematology, serology, histopathology, molecular biology and cytogenetics.
It has built a network of over 75 labs and 2,000 exclusive collection centres across 23 states in India.
Vashishta, who is also the MD and CEO of Pathkind, said the company will use the funding to build on the diagnostics capabilities and capacities, and to augment its services using digitization, and AI/ML tools.
Eklavya Juneja, director at Pathkind, added that the company will also use the capital develop its IT infrastructure, digital marketing, and expansion into southern India.
Vishal Tulsyan, MD and CEO of Motilal Oswal PE, said this is the PE firm’s second investment in the diagnostics industry, the first one being in a medical equipment company.
Motilal Oswal PE cumulatively manages around $2 billion across private equity and real estate funds. The private equity vertical focuses on providing growth capital to mid-market companies across its preferred sectors of consumer, financial services, life sciences and niche manufacturing, typically in the range of Rs 200-500 crore.
Khaitan & Co, Wadia Ghandy & Co, and Ray Legal were the legal advisors on the transaction.
