Funds managed by Motilal Oswal Private Equity invests in Molbio Diagnostics Private Limited
Mumbai 4th March,2020: India BusinessExcellence Fund – III, a fund managed and advised by Motilal Oswal PrivateEquity (“MOPE”), have agreed to invest upto INR 2,400 million in MolbioDiagnostics Private Limited (“Molbio”/ “Company”), a Goa based research drivendiagnostic company.
Molbio (along with its subsidiary Bigtec labs) has developed and commercialized TruenatTM,the world’s first commercial Point-of-Care (PoC) molecular diagnostics platformusing PCR (polymerase chain reaction) technology. TruenatTM candiagnose 22 infectious diseases (like TB, H1N1, Dengue, HIV, Hepatitis etc.) andhas a pipeline of additional 43 diseases (such as Coronavirus, MERS, etc.). Thisindigenous technology was approvedby ICMR in 2018, after 3 years of validation study across various sites inIndia. Internationally, the World Health Organization (WHO), after conducting amulti-country study, has released a rapid communication in January 2020 endorsingTruenatTM as initial diagnostic test of MTB and MTB-RIFin view of its high accuracy.
Established in 2000, Molbio and Bigtec have spent 18 years on R&D,collaborated with reputed institutions in India and across the globe e.g. CSIR,ICMR, BIRAC, Grand Challenges Canada, BMGF, FIND to develop and deploymolecular diagnostics in resource limited settings. The TruenatTMassay is rapid (results within 60 minutes) and affordable. The equipment isbattery operated and can be used in peripheral centers without extensiveinfrastructure.
Molbio is working closely with centraland state governments across India for supporting the national mission of TBeradication by 2025 and efficient diagnosis of H1N1, Dengue, Hepatitis B &C and other infectious diseases. As per the National Strategic Plan for TBElimination of India, Government plans to establish over 8,000 molecularlaboratories and diagnose over 1.5 crore patients’ annually using moleculartests by 2025. A phase wise roll out with 1,512 TruenatTM machineshas already been initiated.
At present, TruenatTM devicesare installed in over 500+ private labs and 350+ primary health centers inIndia and across the world in 27 countries. WHO endorsement will further enablethe product to be commercialized across 150 + countries.
Vishal Tulsyan, ManagingDirector and CEO of MOPE commented, “We are very proud of partnering with aninnovation led company that is likely to change diagnostic paradigm and havereal impact on saving millions of life. Molbio has successfully innovatedworld’s first point of care molecular diagnostic platform and is a truetestament to ‘Make in India’ for the world. Molbio’s business model of closeended diagnostic platform with multiple test assays have strong potentialacross the globe both in public and private sector. Through this partnership,we intend to help Molbio scale up their operations and achieve its vision ofbecoming a leading and well respected medical equipment company from India.”
Sriram Natarajan, Director and CEO of Molbio said, “Today,India has the highest TB burden across the globe and nearly 1,400 people die ofTB every day. TruenatTMwill help in decentralizing and democratizing access to high quality diagnosticsto millions of patients suffering from TB and other infectious diseases even atperipheral and remote settings. Partneringwith MOPE will accelerate Molbio’s growth plans and help the company in scalingits business. The funds would be utilized for fulfilling large committed orders,expansion of manufacturing facility and for other working capital and generalcorporate purposes.”
Chandrasekhar Nair, Co-founder Bigtec, Director andCTO of Molbio said, “TruenatTMis patented across 100+ countries and has been a result of persistent effort ofthe dedicated Bigtec team with support from different Indian and globalinstitutions. TruenatTMenables the transition from presumptive to efficient, real time and precise diagnosisof multiple diseases at reasonable price. Partnership with MOPE will enable us toincrease the test menu, build scale and reach to primary healthcare centers andsmaller diagnostics labs, which can now deliver high end molecular diagnostic test.”
About Motilal Oswal Private Equity
MOPE Investment Advisors PrivateLimited (MOPE) is a subsidiary of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited(MOFSL), a diversified financial services group with businesses in securities,asset management, private equity and investment banking. MOPE is currentlymanaging over INR 7,000 crs (US$ 1 billion) across growth capital funds andreal estate funds. The growth capital private equity is focused on providinggrowth capital to mid-market companies across sectors and cumulatively has anAuM of around INR 4,000 crore spread across three funds. MOPE has till dateinvested in 30 companies across financial services, life sciences, nichemanufacturing and consumption based sectors. MOPE closed IBEF III at INR 2,300Crore (US$ 320 million) in 2018 from which investments are currently beingmade.
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