I WAS MEANT TO DO THIS, TO SAVE LIVES
Arunima Patel, 40 managing director, igenetic diagnostics, mumbai igenetic.com
Arunima Patel grew up in Madhya Pradesh and right from her childhood, you couldn’t tell her what to do. “I had my favourite subjects such as mathematics and physics but I really struggled in languages and history. However, you couldn’t tell me to top. I would top if I liked a subject and barely pass if I didn’t,” she says. And so, instead of treading the route charted for her—a career as a doctor—she cracked the entrance exams for engineering and earned herself a degree from Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (NIT), Bhopal, after which she did an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad.
“I knew I wanted to do something big. I didn’t want to remain in a small town,” says Patel. “I would sit and write business plans together with my friends. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur. We had ideas but no money, no network in the space or technical knowledge at the time. In a way I’m glad I didn’t start right out of campus. I got a lot of work after my MBA which helped me,” she says.
After stints at IBM, Prudential Financial and Actis Capital, Patel had over 10 years of experience in
consulting and private equity and she was ready to realise her dream of becoming an entrepreneur. It was at Actis Capital, while looking to invest in the healthcare space, that the idea of setting up an authentic diagnostic facility, iGenetic Diagnostics does, came to Patel.
“I remember at Actis Capital we were looking to invest in diagnostic set ups, and we couldn’t find any. There were only big players such as Dr Lal PathLabs and Metropolis. There was a complete dearth of investment opportunities,” she says, adding, “I realised that this was a great opportunity for someone to come in.”
Today, with an initial investment from family and friends, a round of angel investments worth approximately `9.5 crore, and a final round of private equity with investors such as Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG) led by Ranjan Pai putting in `30 crore, her venture is leading the way in healthcare innovation. When she started out in collaboration with Dr Archana Krishnan and
Dr Sanjay Sonar in 2013, molecular diagnostics was still at a nascent stage of both development and use in India, but thanks to Patel and her team working tirelessly to educate doctors and hospitals about its potential, this is changing.
“These are life-saving tests. Sometimes doctors need to rely on their judgment to treat patients as results don’t exist in most tests. We give the answers in black and white,” she says. Today, with around 20 to 25 tests at iGenetic Diagnostics, the speciality division is growing at a rate of 140 per cent year on year and the routine vertical at 25 per cent. The company clocked revenues worth `10 crore in the last financial year.
While the kick of finally achieving a childhood goal of starting something big excites her, Patel is motivated by the fact that her venture makes a difference and saves lives. “I wouldn’t do anything else. This is what I was meant to do. We do save lives. Just last week, a promoter called to tell me that his 20-year-old son, who is studying to be a doctor himself, had been in ICU for five days—he had caught some infection. We gave a diagnosis, and within 12 hours, the son was on the road to recovery. Every week we have cases where we’ve helped save someone’s life,” she says.
When she isn’t out innovating, educating and rescuing the world, the mother of a six-year-old daughter, is out for a run, cycling, travelling and staying fit. Patel is a boss with immense balance and an inspiration to several women out there aspiring to change the world, one successful business at a time.