Kedaara buys minority stake in India's Oasis Fertility
Kedaara Capital has invested USD 50m for a significant minority stake in Oasis Fertility, a fertility treatment business with more than 26 centres across India.
The transaction facilitates an exit for specialist healthcare investor Invascent Capital, which committed USD 6.2m to the company in 2016 through its second fund. At the time, Oasis – then known as Oasis Centre for Reproductive Medicine – had five locations. The new capital was earmarked for network expansion, new service offerings, and fertility research programmes.
The company, which was founded in 2009 by Durga G. Rao and Kiran Gadela, is concentrated in southern India with Hyderabad as its key hub. In addition to providing full-service fertility treatments, from in vitro fertilisation to ovulation induction-timed intercourse (OI-TI), its in-house academy has trained over 200 medical professionals and published over 60 research papers.
Oasis claims that its revenue has doubled in the past three years. Kedaara’s investment will support further growth, driven in part by strategic acquisitions. Recent initiatives include the introduction of male infertility practice called AndroLife, said to be the first of its kind in India. Gadela said in a statement that the goal is to create a leading fertility platform in India and South Asia.
The statement cited research that suggests the ovaries of Indian women age nearly six years earlier than their Caucasian counterparts, leading to earlier onset of infertility. Various environmental and lifestyle factors have further increased the incidence of fertility in India over the years, it added.
“Oasis has created a scalable, replicable model and espouses a unique culture with clinical excellence and ethics at its core," said Nishant Sharma, CIO and a managing partner at Kedaara.
“Kedaara, with its operational expertise, experience in healthcare and availability of additional capital, will support Oasis in the next step of its growth journey and in realising its vision of becoming the leading fertility chain in the country and adjacent geographies.”
Kedaara is currently deploying its third fund, which closed on USD 1.08bn in August 2021. Oasis represents the firm’s second investment in the single speciality healthcare segment following a INR 15bn (USD 188m) commitment – made jointly with General Atlantic – to optometry chain ASG Eye Hospital in July. That deal facilitated an exit for Investcorp.
O3 Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor for the latest transaction, while Samvad Partners served as legal counsel to Oasis. Quillon Partners and Veritas Legal acted as legal counsel to Invascent and Kedaara, respectively.
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