Now, get IVF, stem-cell storage, cosmetic hair treatment financed

Mumbai: Bajaj Finance is entering the Rs 20,000-crore life care segment under which it will finance expenses for stem cells storage units, cosmetics-based hair treatment, dental and eye care, IVF & maternity care, laproscopic cure for a dozen ailments, and elective medical/paramedical care for many other issues.

The Pune-based company, which claims to be the first to enter this segment in the country, expects to net around Rs 1,000 crore in sales over the next five years from this business hoping to an encore of the massive demand for such segmental funding in the Western markets where life care segment is a booming business.

"We are already test-servicing a slew of elective paramedical care that comes under the life care category, which as of now is a Rs 20,000 crore market in the country. We have already financed 400 customers for their expenses towards stem cell storage, cosmetics-based hair restoration therapy and dental care such as braces, whitening etc.

"A formal launch in the six top metros is expected within a month four weeks," Bajaj Finance president for consumer business Devang Mody told PTI today over phone from his Pune headquarters.

He said the domestic life care category business is around Rs 20,000 crore and is clipping at 20-22 per cent and is likely to cost at a higher pace going forward with financing options now being available.

Mody said while the hair restoration segment is a Rs 1,500-crore market, the stem cells storage market is around Rs 700 crore annually and that he expects to fund a large portion of this market with a national launch over the next six months when it hopes to be present in the 40 largest cities.

On the costing side, he said, the customer can avail of their financing at 5-6 percent premium over the sale prices of the device or care.

Its service is already available in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru and over the next three months it hopes to enter Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad too. Mody said the company over the past one month has financed stem cell storage, dental care, maternity care expenses of 400 customers in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru.

He said a stem cell storage device will cost about Rs 25,000 to Rs 1 lakh while his average financing is around Rs 50,000 per unit.

The largest player in the country sells around 10,000 units a month, he said, adding that shows the latent potential of the market.

Explaining the business he said it is like any other financing by an NBFC, wherein their customers come to them through partners who sell the service or the product.

Mody further said the company has already roped Mydentist, Apollo Spectra, Cloud Nine, Clove, Centre for Sight, EyeQ, Manipal Hopitals, Centre for Obesity & Digestive Surgery, Grant Medical Foundation, Ruby Hall Clinic and Enhance as partners to offer these services.

And Mody expects the rising income, greater health awareness, lifestyle diseases and stress-related ailments will be the key drivers of growth.

Other financing options under this business include knee replacement surgery and all knee care related procedures, eye care treatment like lasik, cataract, ICL and retina surgery, all types of bariatric surgeries.

It also offers financing to as many as a dozen laproscopic procedures for illness such as cholecystectomy, appendectomy, hernioplasty, fundoplication, Heller's myotomy and even hysterectomy, myomectomy, ovarian cystectomy, gastric bypass, and umbilical hernia repair etc.