Acumen Fund is excited to announce two new investments, both in the field of eye care. PVRI (Pushpagiri Vitreo Retina Institute) based outside Hyderabad, India, and UHEAL (Upper Hill Eye and Laster Centre), in Kenya, both focus on specific forms of preventable ocular damage. With similar business models and parallel aims, through our investment in these complementary enterprises, Acumen Fund seeks to identify and and share best practices across continents, while building an effective model for delivering eye care to the poor.
Loss of eye sight has a tremendous economic and social impact on low-income families, eliminating the ability of at least one member to earn an income, and often requiring substantial assistance from at least one other family member. Its prevalence is in large measure a symptom of underlying challenges related to poor nutrition, lack of access to timely diagnostic screening, and the unavailability of appropriate treatment.
Using its flagship hospital in Secunderabad (near Hyderabad) as a hub, PVRI has provided outreach clinics, mobile screening units, and treatment camps in rural areas throughout the region, as well as in-house care to thousands. With the investment by the Acumen Fund, PVRI will be building two additional hospitals and corresponding expansion of outreach units. Gori Hari, CEO of PVRI, notes that the the expansion will allow PVRI to treat “450,000 patients through surgeries or procedures and screen a million patients over 10 years, as well as conduct 1800 camps to screen an additional 450,000 patients.”
Founded by Dr. Kibata Githeko, an opthalmologist specializing in pediatrics and retina care, UHEAL has operated mobile eye units throughout the region to counter long waits endemic in eye care. With Acumen Fund’s investment it will now be able to expand, operating fifteen camps a year, specifically to screen for diabetic retinopathy and to provide non-invasive and laser-based treatments, general eye examinations, as well as some follow-up care.
UHEAL and Acumen will experiment with different pricing models to find the right balance between financial sustainability and social impact, while PVRI will subsidize eye care to low-income communities by charging higher margins to high-income consumers.
The parallel investments will provide added value in the form of shared learnings. As Varun Sahni, the India Director for Acumen Fund has recently noted, “Having two investments with similar models for delivering advanced eye care to the poor creates a unique opportunity for collaboration, and we look forward to sharing best practices across geographies as we work to bring these solutions to scale.”