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Come what may, Mr Kamal D. Shah would never miss his sleep at night. He sleeps for 6-7 hours. So, what’s the big deal? Everyone wants and loves to sleep like a log. But for this 36-year-old first generation entrepreneur it is not just a biological need. It is the question of survival for him. He requires 6 hours of dialysis for five days in a week. And he dons dialysis equipment and sleeps because he doesn’t want that to stifle his daytime mission – to offer affordable dialysis packages.
His kidneys failed him when he was 22, clipping his dreams to go to the US to pursue Masters in chemical engineering. His kidneys were severely damaged after taking shots of vaccine to meet the US requirements. Investigations later found that a rare genetic problem was triggered by the vaccines.
Mr Kamal turned a software professional setting up a venture to develop applications for iPhones and other mobile gadgets.
On dialysis since then, he realised that kidney care, particularly dialysis, needed special attention. “For almost all hospitals, it is just another department. But this needs special attention given the vulnerabilities involved. It is not affordable too,” he said.
He set up Nephroplus for which he teamed up with an IIT grad Vikram Vuppala to exclusively focus on kidney care with a special emphasis on dialysis with funding of Rs 2.5 crore from angel investors.
“We started the venture two years ago. We now have three units. We are offering dialysis starting from Rs 1,580. More than the price, we have developed patent-pending products and procedures that ensure zero infection post dialysis,” Mr Vikram said.
Chain of centres
Believing in this story, Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP), a venture capital firm, has agreed to fund 100 such outlets, with each costing about Rs 1-2 crore, in the next three years. The two firms signed a deal last week. The US-based VC firm has a $1-billion fund focussed on India.
In the first phase, about 15 Nephroplus units would come up in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in 2012. “We will scale this up in the subsequent years,” Mr Vikram said.
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