Financial service giant HDFC Group has decided to back genomics research and diagnostics company MedGenome. HDFC Ltd along with its sister companies HDFC Life and HDFC Asset Management has poured $10 million in the Bengaluru based healthcare startup. With this latest capital infusion, MedGenome has officially closed series C fund raising round, which brought nearly $40 million of funds for the startup.
In August last year, MedGenome scooped up $30 million (Rs 192 crore) from Sequoia Capital and new investor Sofina SA in first stage of the series C round. MedGenome’s total fund raising till date has now risen to $64 million.
“We believe understanding genetic information can have a big impact on Indian healthcare industry through early detection of disease risk and development of new medicines. We have thus decided to support MedGenome in its endeavor to make genetic tests affordable and accessible widely,” HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh said in a statement.
The Bengaluru based startup will utilize the funds for increasing its footprints across the country. It will mainly try to penetrate into the markets of smaller towns and cities as well as creating more genetic centres across hospitals. Besides, the company plans to democratize few critical genetic tests. This includes critical genetic tests like noninvasive prenatal screening (NIPT) and new-born genetic testing.
Most experts claim that the genomic and diagnostics segment in India still has a long way to go. However, despite being in nascent stage the segment is attracting lot of interest from the investment community. The other two big names in this space iGenetic Diagnostics Pvt. Ltd and Core Diagnostics Pvt. Ltd have already received sizeable investment from investors.
From the long term, HDFC’s decision to make investment in MedGenome may augur well for the entire segment. This is primarily because it is very rare for a financial service giant to invest in a niche healthcare segment.