Asian Healthcare Fund, a private equity firm floated by DaburBSE -0.58 % Group chairman Anand Burman and former Dabur Pharma CEO Ajay Kumar Vij, is close to investing in a chain of dental clinics, its first investment since it was set up in 2011.

Asian Healthcare Fund (AHF) will invest around Rs 40-50 crore in Mydentist, a regional dental care chain of 40 clinics with a focus in western India. By sheer numbers, it is among the largest private chains in the country with 38 of its 40 clinics located in Mumbai and the rest in Pune. The funding would be used to scale up its footprint in other geographies.

Confirming the plan to ET, Vij, who is the CEO of Asian Healthcare Fund, said: “We were impressed with Mydentist’s value proposition as a service targeted towards a rapidly-growing middle class. We also agreed with their vision.” Before founding startup Mydentist in 2009, founder Vivek Vora worked with Healix Medico, which marketed dental equipment. ET couldn’t verify how much equity the PE fund would pick up in the dental venture.

In 2010, the Burmans invested in a radiology business operated by Diwan Chand Medical Services. But, this investment was made in their personal capacity and hadn’t been routed through the PE firm, sources told ET.

Asian Healthcare Fund was floated after German firm Fresenius Kabi acquired Dabur Pharma. Besides the Burmans, AHF also has several external investors. It started with a mandate of making investments between $5 million and $20 million in healthcare ventures such as diagnostics, clinics, pathology labs, pharmaceutical and medical devices manufacturers.

Private equity investments in the Indian healthcare space crossed $520.36 million in 2012. This marked a four-fold annual jump, when pitted against comparable investments in 2011, which stood at $137.41 million, according to a Thomson Reuters estimate. This jump is at a time when PE investments across all sectors plunged by a substantial 17.5% to $3.26 billion from $3.95 billion during the corresponding period, the same data showed.

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