V. Govindarajan (seated), Founder and MD, Aarthi Scans and Labs, with (from left) Arun Kumar, Director; Aarthi Prasana, Director and Chief Radiologist and Prasana Vignesh, Executive Director and Radiologist
| Photo Credit:
BIJOY GHOSH
The Chennai-headquartered Aarthi Scans and Labs, a bootstrapped diagnostics firm in its 25th year of operation, is gearing up for a public listing. As the first step, the company is now in active discussions with investors to seal a pre-IPO ‘minority [stake] round’ of around ₹250 crore.
The closely-held business was founded by V Govindarajan, an engineer-turned entrepreneur, and is now managed by his son, daughter and son-in-law, who are all radiologists. Over the last six-seven years, the next-generation has modernised technology, finance, marketing, HR, clinical reporting and other functions.
“Growth has been fast after these changes. With this set-up in place, we can now easily go for an IPO in two-three years,” V Govindarajan, Founder and Managing Director, Aarthi Scans and Labs, said. Four years ago, the company just had 30 centres (providing pathology and scan services) nationally, but now it has 75. “We have been ploughing back profits into the business and not raised any external funding. We can expand with existing cash flows, but we want to grow faster by making big acquisitions,” he added.
The company clocked a revenue of ₹305 crore in FY25 and is looking at a revenue of ₹375 crore in FY26. “We have a growth target of 20-22 per cent every year for the next four years,” Govindarajan said. It is also debt-free now.
Affordable scans
Aarthi Scans’ origins go back to the 1980s when Govindarajan started Aarti Hospital, a first-of-its-kind multispecialty hospital in Kovilpatti for his doctor wife. This prompted expansion into allied diagnostic business to better serve the people of South Tamil Nadu. “In 1998, people had to go to Madurai or Chennai for an MRI, so I set up the first Aarthi Scans centre in Tirunelveli in 2000,” he said.
The company’s policy to price scans almost 40-50 per cent lesser than competitors was initially met with scepticism, but the affordability positioning has helped them get more customers into the door and also retain them. It has also recently soft-launched a new vertical, where sportspersons and others can get a snapshot of their health parameters with a digital twin-like platform.
Aarthi Scans has also been aggressively focusing on innovation as a differentiator. Under Dr Arun Kumar, Director, Aarthi Scans and Labs, (Govindarajan’s son) the company automated its end-to-end operations and also implemented marquee ERP systems. Taking it a notch higher, they are now using seven radiology AI models from external providers. “All our chest X-rays and CT Brain scans go through AI models for triaging. We have been able to achieve 40 per cent reduction in turnaround time for chest X-rays and also reduced ‘door to needle time’ for strokes by almost half,” Arun Kumar said.
Dr Aarthi Prasana, Director and Chief Radiologist, Aarthi Scans and Labs, (Govindarajan’s daughter) takes care of hiring, skilling and mentoring radiologists and pathologists to build a pipeline of talent. “With a dearth of talent in this industry, we have also partnered with the medical council and now offer accredited PG courses in radiology,” she said.
Today, Aarthi Scans has 75 hubs (all modalities of tests), 50 collection centres (blood tests only) and 15 diagnostic centres (all except MRI and CT) across 12 States.
Published on July 24, 2025
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