The acquisition, second in the last six months, will help Protea expand into home healthcare areas such as sleep medicine, respiratory care, geriatric care. The market in India for medical equipment that can be used in a home-based setting is estimated at Rs 10,000 crore a year.
Health Mantra was started in 2009 in Bengaluru by Ashish Bhutada and Anoop Kodoli. The company has a team of 30 plus biomedical engineers, physiotherapists and service staff and a service network across five states — Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra.
"Medical equipment is often an integral element of effective home healthcare especially in areas such as diabetes, oncology, orthopedics, geriatric care, sleep and respiratory disorders. Our acquisition of Health Mantra augments Portea’s offering and underlines our customer focus," Meena Ganesh, MD & CEO of Portea said in a statement. Portea acquired specialty pharmaceutical distributor, MedybizPharma in November 2015. The company picked up a majority stake in PSTakeCare, a health-tech startup in January 2016.