Quadria Capital bets on healthcare, Med-Tech and outsourcing after Nephroplus listing

In a detailed discussion on healthcare and pharmaceutical investing, the leadership team of Quadria Capital shared their strategic outlook following the successful listing of portfolio company Nephroplus. Amit Varma, Co-founder & Managing Partner, and Sunil Thakur, Partner & Investment Committee Member at Quadria Capital, outlined their key investment themes, exit strategies and future bets in the sector.Commenting on Nephroplus’ public market debut, where Quadria Capital is the largest shareholder, Varma highlighted the investment’s strong returns. “Our returns are close to almost 2x after our investment, but the internal rate of return (IRRs), as you can imagine, because it’s a short holding period, is going to be far higher,” he said. Despite selling a 5% stake, Varma said the firm remains committed to the long term. “We are firm believers in the medium to long term of this company. So, we continue to stay as the single largest shareholder,” he added, noting Quadria’s typical holding period of five to seven years and no urgency to exit the remaining 30% stake.

With the closing of its third fund at $1.07 billion—around 60% larger than its previous fund—Quadria Capital plans to deploy capital across five core themes. Thakur outlined these as localisation to strengthen domestic supply chains, outsourcing with India and Vietnam as global hubs, consumer healthcare, digital healthcare, and a roll-up strategy to consolidate fragmented segments such as diagnostics and healthcare delivery.

Within these themes, Thakur said Quadria continues to focus on select high-growth areas. “Single speciality continues to be an area of interest for us, which is what we’ve been doing successfully for the last 10 years,” he said. Other focus areas include speciality pharma, contract manufacturing, CRDMOs, preventive healthcare and health financing.

Also Read: Nephrocare Health shares list at 7% premium to issue price

On the ‘China plus one’ strategy, Varma acknowledged that progress has been slower than expected but said the firm remains patient. “It hasn’t played out as fast as it should. We are not distressed because it hasn’t played out because we do believe fundamentally investment in healthcare takes a long time and has huge regulatory challenges,” he said. Varma expects a meaningful shift in manufacturing to India and Southeast Asia over the next three to five years, driven by execution rather than rhetoric. Thakur added that the CRDMO space offers significant depth, backed by India’s talent pool and manufacturing capabilities.

Addressing exit strategies, Varma said Quadria has historically preferred strategic sales over IPOs. “If you look through our past track record, 50 to 60% of our exits have actually been to strategics… Only 10% has gone to IPO,” he said, adding that strategic buyers provide more resilient capital and enable companies to focus on long-term growth rather than short-term market pressures.

Also Read: NephroPlus targets global growth with Saudi entry as IPO opens; margin expansion expected

Looking ahead, the partners highlighted future opportunities that are currently underappreciated. Thakur pointed to outsourcing-led businesses, including global capability centres, preventive healthcare and models benefiting from payer tailwinds such as revenue cycle management. Varma, meanwhile, identified med-tech as a key emerging opportunity. “We do believe that Med-Tech is actually going to be the next area for focus because there’s a lot of local indigenisation needed in the Med-Tech space. And there are not enough companies of scale and size which can deliver the same way that we did pharma 10 years ago,” he said.

For the entire discussion, watch the accompanying video

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