Just two weeks before Mexico City announced the closure of non-essential activities to curb the spread of coronavirus, in 2020, Grupo Sohin inaugurated the Cuidarte outpatient clinic for oncology patients. In the midst of the health crisis, with many hospitals converted into covid centers and patients’ fear of contagion, the clinic managed to break even in less than two years. And, incidentally, caught the attention of Nexxus Iberia.
So much so that the fund has just bought a majority stake in Cuidarte, with the aim of promoting the expansion of the clinics, first in Mexico and then in Latin America. It will do so through Bienzobas, a Spanish company that also acquired Nexxus and is directed by Marian Isach.
Juana Ramírez, founder and president of Grupo Sohin, explains that the health holding company that she heads maintains a minority percentage of the clinic’s shares, but she remains president of the board and it will be the local team that will operate the expansion. “With this investment we ensure the scalability of the model and we will be able to set up new clinics in Mexico.” The goal, says the businesswoman, is to have a Cuidarte center in every city in the country, and the plan will start with the intermediate ones. In 2022 three openings are contemplated, although Ramírez points out that he still cannot share the location.
“The acquisition will allow Bienzobas to accelerate its project in Mexico, taking advantage of Cuidarte’s position with its current clients […]. The Bienzobas team will work together with the Cuidarte team to develop a service and business model that is the most appropriate and adapts to the current needs of the Mexican health market,” said Maite Ballester, CEO of Nexxus Iberia, quoted in a statement.
The transaction allowed Ramírez to repurchase shares in Grupo Sohin that had been sold or passed into the hands of seed investors. “I sold a majority of the shares of Cuidarte, but I was able to buy a part of Sohin, which allows me to have 83% of the group’s shares. That puts me in a very good situation for this year. In addition to focusing our efforts on growth and scalability, now that we have guaranteed resources for expansion, I will focus part of my efforts on raising capital for Grupo Sohin”, he explains.
Ramírez founded this health holding company 13 years ago which, in addition to Cuidarte, the latest to join the group, has two more companies: Genethic Services, a genetic diagnosis, and Sohin Concierge, the initial model of the company that offers support to patients with complex diseases. More than 60% are cancer patients, but it also cares for patients with multiple sclerosis, HIV, catastrophic or rare diseases, among others, many of them without a cure or with very expensive and demanding treatments.
This concierge model serves 25,000 patients per month in 19 cities in Mexico, and also has operations in Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. The objective of the new financing that the company will seek is to increase the number of patients. “We want to reach all the countries in the region, with local home care services.”
Ramírez points out that the concierge model has a “unique” feature: patients do not pay for the service, something that is achieved with b2b alliances with insurers and pharmaceutical companies. This has even allowed that 60% of patients are from the public sector and have been sponsored by a health company.
In the pandemic, the growth of the model was exponential, after Sohin had spent more than a decade caring for patients from home, without having to go to a hospital.
The businesswoman highlights that the operation with Nexxus Iberia represents several important milestones for the entrepreneurial ecosystem and the health sector, at a time when Elizabeth Holmes’s Theranos scandal has intensified the surveillance of investment funds and processes of due diligence. “Only 1.6% of companies are founded and run by women, and in Latin America only 6% of fund investments, whether private equity or venture capital, go to companies founded by women. I think this case represents a milestone,” he says.
The percentage is lower for social impact companies, including health companies, since only 2% of the investments are allocated to them. In Mexico, where only 37% of companies have access to financing, he says, only 3% of health companies do. “It is classified as a high-risk sector, because it is understood that 95% of patients are from the public sector and that the public sector is at high risk. It is a sector that the institutions do not understand well and that is discarded”, he adds. “I would like to think that this milestone marks a turning point for other health entrepreneurs, but above all for other women.”
