Akna Medical bags $7 mn in Series A round from LGT Lightstone Aspada

Healthcare supply chain platform Akna Medical has closed the first tranche of its Series A funding round, with a $7 million investment from LGT Lightstone Aspada, the India-focused venture capital arm of private equity firm LGT Lightstone.

The New Delhi headquartered company will use the fresh capital to improve its technology offerings and products, and to expand its operations across geographies, according to the statement.

Additionally, Akna will invest $20 million of its own capital over the next two years to aid with the geographic expansion and technology enhancement, the statement said.

Founded in 2018 by Saurabh Pandey and Mahadevan Narayanamoni, Akna, with its technology and analytics tool SmartBUY, provides category-specific and full procurement solutions across surgical and pharmaceutical products to hospital chains. It counts hospitals such as Max Healthcare, Fortis, Medanta and Cloudnine as its clients.

It also operates a wholesale online store, SmartMedicalBuyer.com, which sells medical supplies and equipment. With a portfolio of over 1,000 products, the platform currently serves customers across 22 states.

“Hospitals partner with us due to our ability to leverage our technology, build customised procurement solutions to cater to their specific needs and ultimately optimise consumption for them. We are also scaling up our technology team to offer integrated supply chain solutions to our partners, be it hospitals or manufacturers,” Saurabh Pandey, co-founder and CEO, Akna Medical, told TechCircle.

“The healthcare value chain in India is primed for intervention through systemic changes and   technological innovation with the goal to make high quality healthcare services affordable. Our strategy is to back high growth platforms, like Aknamed (Akna Medical), which have the ability to leverage technology, transform supply chains and support delivery of healthcare outcomes at scale,” Kartik Srivatsa, managing partner, LGT Lightstone Aspada, said.

LGT Lightstone Aspada was founded in 2013 and is a unit of private equity firm LGT Lightstone. The latter’s global portfolio spans several sectors including hospitals, medical devices, financial services, food and agri, and renewable energy. In India, it has invested over $60 million in healthcare assets over the past 12 months.

The past month saw several investments in the healthtech space. 

Bengaluru-based healthtech startup Cure.fit Healthcare, which owns an eponymous fitness platform, raised $109 million in a growth round led by the investment entity of the Singapore government, Temasek Holdings. 

ImStrong Health And Wellness, which owns and operates live video streaming fitness platform ImStrong, raised Rs 3 crore ($399,042 then) in a seed funding round led by Rainmatter Capital, a startup incubator established by online stock trading startup Zerodha.

Hyderabad-based startup StanPlus Technology, which owns and operates medical transportation platform StanPlus, raised $1.5 million in an extended seed funding round led by private equity fund Pegasus FinInvest.

Singapore-based medtech firm Uber Diagnostics, which runs artificial intelligence (AI)-based diagnostics platform Cardiotrack, raised an undisclosed amount in an extended seed funding round led by private equity firm Frontline Strategy Funds.

Healthcare analytics platform Tricog Health Services raised $10.5 million in a Series B round from returning investors University of Tokyo Edge Capital and Aflac Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of insurance provider Aflac.