Angel investors lend Rs 38 lakh to Akshara Eye Hospital

Akshara Eye Hospital, nurtured under Right Axis Eye Hospital Private Limited, has raised Rs 38 lakh in second round of funding from an undisclosed group of angel investors.

Reportedly, the funding would be used to expand ophthalmic service offerings apart from brand building.

Founded by Ashish Kumar, P Rohitha Nayak and Shailesh Kumar, Akshara Eye Hospital offers eye care services like medical retina, cataract care, glaucoma services, pediatric ophthalmology and squint services.

While both Ashish Kumar and Nayak are ophthalmologists, having worked with Sankara Eye Centre, Narayana Nethralaya, Vasan Eye Care Hospital; Shailesh Kumar, an alumnus of IIM Bangalore, has previously worked with Sapient, HP and Infosys.

The hospital launched its maiden centre near Bannerghatta Road in South Bangalore in August 2014.

DIA Capital Advisors acted as an exclusive financial advisor for the transaction.

Eye-care segment, which is a high margin business, has seen several firms attracting investor attention.

Vasan Healthcare, New Delhi Centre for Sight and Medfort Maxivision, are the other prominent funded players in the business.

In fact, Vasan Healthcare rose about Rs 300 crore in fresh funding from existing investors, namely Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC, Sequoia Capital and West Bridge Capital.

In the recent past, International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector investment arm of the World Bank, invested about Rs 34 crore in Eye-Q Vision Pvt Ltd.