Sequoia-backed Curatio Healthcare secures $20 Mn from ChrysCapital

Dermatology products maker Curatio Healthcare has raised $20 million from private equity firm ChrysCapital. Following the investment, ChrysCapital will pick up a significant minority stake in the Chennai-based startup.

Silicon Valley-based venture capital fund Sequoia holds about 33 per cent stake in the startup while promoter of Curatio G.K. Ramani and Fulcrum Venture India together hold the rest.

Earlier, Sequoia had invested Rs 95 crore ($15.8 million) to buy the large minority stake in the skin care product startup in 2014. Majority stakeholder Fulcrum along with Ramani invested Rs 8.5 crore ($1.41 million) in Curatio to pick up 70 per cent stake in 2005.

The latest funding round also gives a partial exit to Fulcrum, while Ramani also has diluted his stake.

Curatio(meaning healing) was established in 2005 by former executives at American Remedies. The firm has a field force of 550 employees, reaching over 20,000 doctors across India and operates in overseas markets such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Philippines, and Nepal.

The company's main focus is on pediatric cosmetology — where it is building brands like Tedibar, which is poised to be a Rs 50-crore brand.

ChrysCapital, with over $3 billion asset under management (AUM) across seven funds, has done nine investments in the pharmaceuticals space including Eris Lifesciences, Intas Pharma, Mankind Pharma, Torrent Pharma and Zydus Cadila.

Pharmaceuticals and healthcare-focused private equity (PE) firm Fulcrum was founded by Krishna Ramanathan, whose father sold his pharma company American Remedies to Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories in December 1999.

Fulcrum has invested in companies such as Shield Healthcare, Richfeel Health and Beauty, Congruent Solutions, Nutri Synapzz Therepeutix, among others.

The development was reported by Mint.