Our Story · Since 2008 Eighteen Years of Apex
In 2003, four young nephrologists in Mumbai found themselves discussing the same problem at the same conference. India's dialysis sector was nowhere near where it needed to be. The conversation that began on the sidelines that week did not end. It continued every week, for four years, until on Independence Day 2008, the first AKC dialysis session was delivered. This is the story of the eighteen years since.
2003
The FoundingConversation Begins
2008
First AKC DialysisSession Delivered
18
Years SinceThe Founding
250+
Centres Across14 States Today
1,850
Coworkers
Chapter One · Nagpur, 2003
At the Western Zone conference of the Indian Society of Nephrology in Nagpur in 2003, four young Mumbai nephrologists found themselves talking on the sidelines. A couple of them had returned recently from training fellowships in Canada and Australia. They had seen what dialysis looked like in countries where the system worked. They knew what India's dialysis sector looked like by comparison.
The gap was not subtle. The infrastructure was thin. Quality varied wildly between centres. Patients lived with treatments that fell well short of international standards. Nephrologists practising in Mumbai's tertiary hospitals saw the same patients arrive over and over with the same problems - problems that better-organised dialysis would have prevented.
The conversation that week began as the kind that happens at every conference: “someone should really do something about this.” What was unusual was that this conversation did not stop when the conference ended. It carried on the following week. And the week after.
Chapter Two · 2003-2007
From 2003 to 2007, the founding group met consistently - once a week, every week, for four years. The reason for that discipline was not academic: it was practical. The four nephrologists came from different hospitals, different training backgrounds, different temperaments. Before any business model could be built, they needed to know that their mindsets matched - that when difficult decisions arose, they would resolve them the same way.
The mathematics of running a dialysis unit in Mumbai looked impossible. Real estate costs in the city were among the highest in India. Dialysis machines were expensive. Consumables were imported. The session pricing patients could afford did not cover the cost of doing the work to international standards. Quality dialysis, by itself, is not a profit-making venture - even before real estate costs are factored in.
For four years, the group met without much to show for it. No premises. No machines. No patients. Just conversations about how the institution should work, what its principles needed to be, and who would do what when the work began. It was, in retrospect, the most important part of the whole story. The four years of preparation were what made the eighteen years that followed possible.
The Founding Group
The clinical founders of Apex Kidney Care - the practising nephrologists who shaped the institution's clinical, academic, and operational character through its first eighteen years.
Co-Founder · Nephrologist, Bombay Hospital · Transplant outcomes · Project Victory consortium
Anchored AKC's clinical work on transplant outcomes, infection patterns, and the Project Victory COVID consortium. Long-tenure clinical co-author on the AKC body of work; structural director of Apex Kidney Care Private Limited.
Co-Founder · Director of Nephrology, Nanavati Max · FRCP (Edinburgh) · ISN Education Ambassador
The clinical educator of the group. FRCP (Edinburgh) elected fellow, International Society of Nephrology Education Ambassador, and a forty-plus publication record. Connected AKC's clinical practice to international academic networks from the early years.
Co-Founder · Nephrologist, L.H. Hiranandani Hospital · Infection control & dialysis quality research
Clinical lead on infection control protocols and dialysis quality research - a domain that has become central to AKC's operating model across more than 200 centres. Co-author on the Project Victory consortium's pandemic-era work.
Co-Founder & Director, Apex Kidney Care · Associate Professor of Nephrology, Bombay Hospital
The clinical-academic spine of the founding group. Principal author across ASTRA's mathematical optimisation, the Project Victory citywide dashboard, and the AKC × IIT Bombay operations-research programme. Twenty-plus indexed publications.
Philanthropist · Founding patron of Apex Kidney Care
At the most crucial juncture - when the founders had a plan, a clinical model, and aligned principles but no path to capital - Mr. Rupen Kothari, a true philanthropist, stepped forward. His sole interest was helping dialysis patients. He believed in the founders' clinical capability, and offered all possible financial assistance to bring the institution to life. Apex Kidney Care, in the words of its own founders, owes everything to this gentleman.
Director of Apex Kidney Care
Mr. Hitesh Mehta is a visionary early investor who provided pivotal capital and strategic guidance to AKC's directors during its formative years, offering foundational support that successfully championed the organization's journey toward success.
The First Dialysis Session
The first AKC dialysis session was delivered on Independence Day, 2008. The first two centres - in Mulund and Malad - opened in the suburbs of Mumbai. A small clinical team. A handful of patients. The institution that would become India's largest dialysis network was born on a date the founders did not choose by accident.
// First Centres
Mulund & Malad suburbs of Mumbai
// Mode of Care
Stand-alone dialysis centres, nephrologist-led
The Eighteen Years
The eighteen years between 2008 and 2026 tell a story of patient growth first, then institutional building, then the addition of academic and educational arms, then the entry of institutional capital, and finally the public-health-scale expansion that defines AKC today. The major moments, in order.
| Year | Centres |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 15 |
| 2020 | 30 |
| 2021 | 105 |
| 2022 | 130 |
| 2023 | 170 |
| 2024 | 195 |
| 2025 | 235 |
| 2026 | 250 |
2008
// The Beginning
First Dialysis · 15 August
The first dialysis session is delivered on 15 August 2008 (Independence Day) at the founding AKC centres in Mulund and Malad. The institution is registered in 2007 and operational on 15 August the following year - a date the founders chose deliberately. Apex Kidney Foundation, the charitable trust arm, is established alongside.
2 centres · Mumbai only
2010
// First Year of Academia
ApEx Pathshala Founded
Within two years of operating, AKC launches ApEx Pathshala - a structured CME programme for nephrologists. A four-day residential course, run under the Apex Academia umbrella. The founding view: a clinical institution that doesn't teach doesn't last.
2011
// Academic Foundation
Two Academic Institutions Founded
Two foundational institutions are launched in the same year. ASTRA - the Apex Swap Transplant Registry - becomes India's first mathematically-optimised paired kidney exchange registry. The Apex School of Dialysis Technology opens to train India's dialysis workforce. Together, the academic and educational arms of AKC are now in place.
2015
// First Domino Transplant
ASTRA Milestone
ASTRA coordinates the first documented multi-hospital domino transplant in India - a five-pair chain across four hospitals in two cities. The proof of concept that paired exchange could scale beyond a single institution.
2017
// Continued Expansion
Geographic Build
New states come online. Goa builds out as a near-complete state grid (21 centres). Delhi adds nine centres. Gujarat begins with hospital-based units. Smaller footprints open in Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Bihar.
2017
// IIT Bombay Collaboration
Academic Partnership
What started as informal exchange becomes a structured academic-clinical collaboration with IIT Bombay's IEOR Department. Two doctoral scholars anchor their PhD theses on AKC data. The collaboration produces publications across kidney exchange, vascular access, and treatment policy.
2020
// Pandemic Response
Project Victory · May 2020
In the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, AKC convenes a coalition with IIT Bombay, the Mumbai Nephrology Group, and the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) to build a real-time citywide dialysis-allocation portal. The system enrolls 1,418 COVID-positive end-stage kidney disease patients and secures dialysis slots for 97% of them within 48 hours. India's most impactful dialysis-coordination initiative of the pandemic.
23 COVID-positive centres · 1,418 patients enrolled
2021
// First State PPP
Madhya Pradesh Partnership
AKC enters a large-scale partnership with the Madhya Pradesh state government - opening dialysis centres in district-level towns across the state. The largest single-state PPP build in AKC's history. The MP partnership eventually scales to more than 70 centres across 50+ district towns, providing free dialysis to eligible patients.
70 PPP centres · 50+ MP district towns
2022
// Publication Milestone
Indian J Nephrology
The Project Victory work is published as an Original Article in the Indian Journal of Nephrology. The published account of citywide dialysis coordination becomes a reference document for pandemic-response literature internationally.
2022
// Second State PPP
Telangana Partnership
A second large state PPP begins - this time with the Telangana state government. The build covers nearly 46 centres in distinct towns across the state, with each centre operating as a free public dialysis facility under AKC's clinical standards.
46 PPP centres · Telangana district network
2023
// First Institutional Capital
Tata Capital Healthcare Fund
The Tata Capital Healthcare Fund makes its institutional investment in AKC - validating the clinical model and unlocking the first phase of national expansion. Governance structures are formalised. Professional management is brought in. The expansion from Mumbai to multiple states begins.
2025
// Second Institutional Capital
Blue Earth Capital
Global impact investor Blue Earth Capital joins the AKC investor base. The partnership introduces an explicit impact-investing framework alongside the existing Tata Capital relationship - aligning financial returns with measurable social impact across the network.
2026
// Eighteen Years In
Today
More than 250 active dialysis centres across 14 Indian states. Over 1,850 Coworkers across clinical, technical, and administrative roles. More than 6.2 million dialysis sessions delivered to date. An academic body of work anchoring kidney exchange, pandemic response, vascular access, home hemodialysis, and treatment policy research. The conversation that began in Nagpur, in 2003, has built one of India's most distinctive nephrology institutions.
250+ centres · 14 states · 1,850+ Coworkers · 62,00,000+ sessions
Where We Are Now
A snapshot, in numbers, of what eighteen years of building looks like in mid-2026.
Across 14 Indian states and 151 towns & cities.
Clinical, technical, administrative across the national network.
Cumulative dialysis sessions across the AKC network to date.
Since the first dialysis session on 15 August 2008.
The Story Continues
Eighteen years ago, four nephrologists, a philanthropist, and an unwillingness to accept the state of Indian dialysis came together in a city that didn't make it easy. The same institution today operates across fourteen states, has published peer-reviewed research papers, and has delivered more than 6.2 million dialysis sessions. The next chapter is already being written.
See our centres across India