Dr Rita Bakshi featured in YourStory about her venture IFC
India’s biggest platform for entrepreneurs, YourStory.com interviewed Dr Rita Bakshi, chairperson of International Fertility Centre and Mr. Saarthak Bakshi, CEO on IVF and Fertility.
Although the IVF success rates is not 100% and many couples have underwent gut-wrenching failed IVF cycles.
During Mr. Saarthak Bakshi’s work period at Adiva, a women centric hospital, he discovered the importance of fertility and how deeply is affecting the people. He has worked as an operation manager at Adiva, co-owned by his mother Dr Rita Bakshi, a specialized IVF expert since decades.
With the objective of aiding couples overcome infertility, Saarthak invented “One Child per Couple” concept. Initially, it was a tough task to persuade stakeholders to join his initiative so he established International Fertility Centre in 2011. At present, IFC is a network of more than 10 IVF clinics spread across India, Nepal and Afghanistan.
In addition, IFC is the only centre in North India that uses ICSI units with micromanipulators, offers Computer-Assisted Sperm Analysis, K-system Laminar air flow, Embryoscope and Vitrification unit. The team at IFC claims to be delivering live babies at an average of 6 out of 10.
Saarthak Bakshi, a former Ernst & Young employee, says, “Post the success of the first IVF centre in Delhi, I researched on the worst affected places in India, where the problem of infertility existed. I started IVF Centre in Rajasthan and expanded into other states. I also realized that in Nepal, a problem similar to India existed – infertility was equally or more burdensome because of the low paying capacity and the similar cultural ethos associated with infertility.”
One of the major obstacles for Saarthak Bakshi was to relate to the nuances and technicalities of the subject, which requires years of research, awareness of the distinct practices performed worldwide and in-depth knowledge and expertise.
He added, “Each centre requires a minimum investment of Rs 1 crore and with no external funding, it was a daunting task to think of replicating IFC centres in other locations. As a strategic move we started partnering with hospitals and widened out network. Hospitals started to outsource the entire IVF wing to us. As a result, I was able to cut my establishment costs to half and expanded much faster than expected.”
Mr. Saarthak Bakshi’s speak on what makes IFC different:
“IFC is unique in the measures it has adopted to treat couples, technology that is unmatchable in any other such centre and the supreme array of doctors that we have.”
IFC’s team claims to have grown from one IFC centre to 12 till the first quarter of 2016 and have had consistent revenue growth. Our team is of close to 100 members and has a turnover of Rs 15 crore.
He further adds, “We also conduct camps for generating awareness in underdeveloped regions like Ethiopia, Uganda and Afghanistan as these countries do not have access to good infertility treatments. Moreover, these countries are politically unstable and pose inherent dangers to the people there.”
IFC is continually aiming towards achieving a global presence with more than 100 IFC centres for your disposal by the year 2020.
If you have any query related to this, Please let us know by submitting your queries in the section mentioned below or write us at mail@internationalfertilitycentre.com