A. Velumani, the person who constructed Thyrocare into considered one of India’s most effective diagnostic chains and exited at near a billion-dollar valuation, is again in builder mode. Not in diagnostics, however in dentistry. And never as a passive investor, however as an working mentor with a stopwatch in hand and a disruption thesis in his pocket.
For the startup world, Velumani has currently turn into one thing of a people hero—the scientist-turned-entrepreneur scaled with frugality, exited at scale, and now dispenses powerful like to founders chasing progress with out income. At founder occasions, product launches, and tv studios, he attracts crowds that deal with him much less like an investor and extra like a enterprise thinker.
However along with his newest enterprise—a nationwide dental platform being constructed below the AVM Smiles banner—Velumani is placing his personal concepts again on trial. AVM Smiles is greater than a facet challenge, with the mentor as soon as once more changing into the operator. It’s a stay experiment, a check of whether or not his core doctrine can nonetheless produce breakout scale in a extra crowded period.
A distinct taking part in area
Velumani’s new initiative may be very not like his unique diagnostic enterprise. When he began Thyrocare, there weren’t many labs with scale and having a diagnostic chain wasn’t even an concept within the Indian market. Dental chains, nonetheless, are a pretty big enterprise in the present day, and to that extent, he’s making an attempt to get right into a market that isn’t nascent anymore.
“Healthcare companies have come a good distance since Thyrocare began. So, it is going to be powerful to emulate the identical success that Velumani had in promoting his first enterprise,” G.S.Okay. Velu, founder and chairman of Neuberg Diagnostics, noticed.
The panorama Velumani is coming into is crowded with established names, refined playbooks, and battle-tested rivals—a far cry from the blue ocean he as soon as navigated.
Velumani is coming into a crowded area of established gamers and battle-tested rivals—a far cry from the blue ocean he as soon as navigated.
The afterlife of an exit
Velumani’s journey as a biochemistry PhD who constructed Thyrocare by focusing narrowly on thyroid testing, slashing costs, constructing a B2B (enterprise to enterprise) mannequin, and scaling by franchise assortment centres quite than costly company-owned networks is effectively documented. His method was radical for its time: simplify, specialise, scale. “What’s simplified is known. What’s simplified is bought. All challenges in enterprise are due to issues,” he informed Mint.
Velumani insists his entry into entrepreneurship was not born out of a grand design however from constraint. He targeted solely on thyroid as a result of that was his educational energy. He priced low as a result of he didn’t absolutely know tips on how to value excessive. He constructed franchise channels as a result of chasing funds himself was inefficient. What later appeared like technique was really survival. “All that I did was completely unconventional… I didn’t have an possibility,” he recalled.
When Velumani bought Thyrocare at a valuation that brushed a billion {dollars}, it appeared like a superbly timed exit. Within the years since, nonetheless, listed diagnostics friends similar to Dr Lal PathLabs, Metropolis and Vijaya Diagnostic have achieved increased market capitalisations. Some observers argue that Velumani could have bought early.
He has responded candidly in conversations: the valuation was engaging, and personally he was coming into a distinct life part after his spouse’s passing in 2016. Velumani thought he was carried out working firms. He wasn’t.
What adopted was an surprising second profession—as investor, mentor, and more and more, as a public voice for capital self-discipline in a startup ecosystem hooked on burn.
Stealing the highlight
At a latest electrical scooter unveiling in Bengaluru by startup Easy Vitality, one thing uncommon occurred. The scooters have been glossy, the tech specs spectacular, however quite than take a look at the electrical automobiles (EVs), many within the crowd gravitated towards one early investor. Velumani discovered himself surrounded by founders and younger operators looking for 5 minutes of blunt suggestions. The {hardware} may wait; the arduous truths couldn’t.
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His recommendation to the founders of the EV firm was characteristically unsentimental: don’t cling to fairness if capital is required to outlive and scale. “Elevate funds, even in case you lose your fairness. Getting funds is a should. As a result of you’ll be able to’t develop your organization and shield your private egocentric pursuits on the identical time,” he mentioned.
Velumani attracts sharp distinctions between what he calls pull merchandise and push merchandise—merchandise prospects actively need versus people who require heavy advertising spend to maneuver. “If the shopper pulls it, you don’t have a buyer acquisition value. If he has no want, it’s a must to push it. Why do you amplify losses? Individuals suppose loss-making will turn into profit-making as soon as scale comes. No—chances are you’ll die if scale comes with out revenue.”
That readability has made him a pure match for tv. On Star India’s entrepreneur actuality present Bharat ke Tremendous Founders, hosted by actor Suneil Shetty, Velumani sits amongst a pool of traders who’ve dedicated ₹100 crore to again rising companies. Contestants pitch; traders commit; Velumani diagnoses.
The entrepreneur says he finds himself repeating three phrases so typically that co-judges tease him about it: Assessment. Reset. Restart. “You might have priced it an excessive amount of—assessment. You haven’t packaged it accurately—reset. You might have 200 SKUs however revenue comes from 10—restart,” he mentioned.
Velumani has additionally shocked fellow traders by often backing founders with out taking fairness—if the concept aligns along with his broader mission of enhancing effectivity and affordability. His acknowledged ambition is now not simply to construct firms, however to construct entrepreneurs. “Me changing into profitable isn’t the objective. It’s management that has impacted or disrupted inefficiencies,” he mentioned.
But whilst his mentor persona grows, Velumani has been quietly making ready for a return to hands-on scaling.
Dental disruption wager
Velumani’s present obsession is dentistry—particularly, a Mumbai-headquartered chain known as Orthosquare, which is being rebranded and expanded below a brand new nationwide platform known as AVM Smiles. The founders, Kunal Shet and Riddhi Rathi Shet, constructed over 100 clinics by a largely company-owned mannequin. Velumani desires to alter the engine mid-flight.
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“Firm owned, firm operated (COCO) isn’t scalable. Franchise owned, franchise operated is scalable,” he mentioned.
The association itself is uncommon. Velumani isn’t placing any capital into the chain. As an alternative, he earns a 4% share of the topline income as a mentoring and model payment. He provided debt help if required; the founders declined, saying the enterprise generates sufficient money. His contribution is the working system: value self-discipline, procurement scale, pricing technique, franchise structure, and model belief.
“This enterprise doesn’t want cash. It’s model administration, software program administration, transparency,” he mentioned.
The targets are daring: 1,000 retailers by 2030, and a headline-grabbing plan to open 100 clinics in a single day. Velumani is already deeply concerned, flying in repeatedly to assessment rollout plans and franchise constructions.
Shet describes Velumani much less as an investor and extra as a mindset shock. “He has fully modified the mannequin. In a COCO mannequin you’re very controlling. Franchising is sort of a rented individual in your model—your mindset has to first change,” he mentioned.
Velumani’s thesis is that dentistry in the present day resembles diagnostics of the Nineteen Nineties: fragmented, underutilised, and overpriced as a consequence of low throughput and ego-driven infrastructure duplication. “In a dental clinic, the chair is empty for 21 hours, busy for 3 hours. That’s inefficiency. Wherever there may be inefficiency, I see alternative,” he argued.
Velumani’s thesis is that dentistry in the present day mirrors Nineteen Nineties diagnostics—fragmented, underutilised and overpriced as a consequence of low throughput and ego-driven duplication.
Dentistry is only one instance of what Velumani sees as a healthcare panorama riddled with inefficiencies ready to be addressed. He factors to billion-dollar alternatives inside healthcare in specialised areas that have to be disrupted, citing fields similar to urology or gynaecology, which can not seem as apparent targets however however supply large potential in a rustic like India.
Velumani’s playbook is acquainted: drive utilisation, centralise buying, standardise processes, push costs down by 30–40%, and let franchisees earn sufficient to remain motivated. Shet says the chain is already targeted on higher-value procedures similar to implants and aligners, and on backward integration in manufacturing—areas AVM Smiles will scale additional.
“Eighty p.c of the procedures give 20% of the cash. Twenty p.c of the procedures give 80% of the revenue. We concentrate on that 20%,” Shet mentioned.
A more durable enviornment
Nonetheless, this isn’t the identical panorama Velumani disrupted three a long time in the past. Organized dental chains exist already at scale. Massive ones similar to Clove Dental, which has over 500 areas, and Sabka Dentist, with 200 retailers, have spent years refining processes, absorbing losses, and tightening operations. But regardless of being in enterprise for over 15 years, each have remained largely native companies confined to some states. Sabka Dentist, for example, operates largely within the western markets after beginning out in Mumbai in 2010.
The franchise mannequin itself is extra contested and extra complicated in the present day than when Thyrocare started increasing.
Dr Ramani Ramamoorthy, a Chennai-based dentist with over 4 a long time of expertise, has a phrase of warning: “The dental chain enterprise, as with all different enterprise, shall be pushed by targets and income. Whereas there may be lots of effectivity that may be had by working chains, dentistry continues to be an area enterprise that runs on belief. So, there are lots of shifting components earlier than a scaled enterprise can generate income.”
But some trade observers imagine the chance stays substantial, even when execution shall be more durable. Mentioned Sujay Shetty, director at PwC: “If Velumani has a nationwide dental chain in thoughts, there’s a good alternative there. And in addition, there may be sufficient room for extra diagnostic providers—the market isn’t saturated but.”
If Velumani has a nationwide dental chain in thoughts, there’s a good alternative there.
—Sujay Shetty, director at PwC
Shet himself argues that it’s early days within the dentistry enterprise in India, pointing to a lack of knowledge about general dental hygiene. He says there’s a large alternative within the enterprise that makes it an attention-grabbing drawback to resolve.
Some healthcare entrepreneurs warning that what labored in a nascent diagnostics market could not translate cleanly to fashionable dentistry. Franchisees are extra refined, competitors is tighter, and margins are extra seen.
Velumani acknowledges not directly that markets evolve—noting that after his exit, diagnostics firms shortly raised costs as soon as the low-price stress he exerted disappeared. “All my rivals elevated charges… Now once more there may be sufficient room to disrupt—not as a result of I cost much less, however as a result of I construct environment friendly programs,” he reiterated.
Later this 12 months, Velumani’s non-compete interval in diagnostics ends. He has made it clear he intends to return, this time focusing on segments of testing he believes stay inefficient and overpriced. “I’m ignoring that one-third of the menu I already disrupted. I’ll concentrate on the two-thirds but to be disrupted,” he mentioned.
Within the startup circuit, Velumani is usually handled like a completed case research. On Saturdays, in suburban Mumbai dental workplaces, he’s laying the bottom for a brand new one.
Key Takeaways
After constructing and efficiently exiting diagnostics chain Thyrocare, A. Velumani has returned to lively entrepreneurship.
This time, he has turned his consideration to disrupting India’s toothcare market.
AVM Smiles, the dental platform Velumani is driving, goals to scale nationally.
It could be by a franchise-led mannequin, specializing in standardisation, operational effectivity, and affordability to drive progress.
Business insiders and observers see each alternative and threat.
They observe that whereas dentistry is fragmented and underpenetrated, additionally it is trust-driven and operationally complicated to scale cross-country.
Velumani has not invested any capital in AVM Smiles. As an alternative, he earns a 4% share of the chain’s topline income as a mentoring and model payment.
