Eight Roads launches $250M fund for healthcare and lifescience sector

Fidelity-backed global venture capital firm Eight Roads Ventures today announced the launch of an India-focused healthcare and life sciences fund of $250 million. This latest fund is said to be the largest sector fund in the country.

With the launch of the new fund, Eight Roads Ventures will continue its focus on early to growth-stage investments in Lifesciences, healthcare services, consumer health, and digital health. Further, the investment firm will make minority investments of up to $40 million in 15 to 20 ambitious sector-focused startups.

At present, Eight Roads Ventures India has a portfolio of nearly 60 companies and invests in the broad sectors of healthcare and technology. Notably, the firm has been investing since 2007 and has $1.6 billion worth of Assets Under Management (AUM) in the country.

"The launch of this healthcare fund reflects our confidence in the evolution of the India market and our commitment to help ambitious founders scale," said Daniel Auerbach, Senior Managing Partner and Head of Global Ventures at Eight Roads Ventures.

Interestingly, Eight Roads manages over $8 billion of capital across China, India, Japan, Europe, and the US. "This ecosystem lends us capacity and scale, setting up powerful efficiencies, deep domain expertise, and the ability to trace trends and understanding across geographies," Daniel said.

So far, the fund has backed several big names in the country like Shadowfax, Laurus Labs, API Holdings (parent of PharmEasy), Cipla Health, Caplin Steriles, skincare, FarEye, and toothsi, to name a few.

Speaking on the fund launch, Dr. Prem Pavoor, Senior Partner, Head of India & Healthcare Investments at Eight Roads Ventures, said: "Today is our day one, as we deepen our commitment to the healthcare sector in India. We have had the privilege of partnering with some of the best healthcare entrepreneurs in the country to build category-defining businesses."

"Our aspiration is to continue backing such bold founders as India leapfrogs many other markets in delivering high-quality healthcare infrastructure, products, and services. We are grateful to our founders, partners, and the Fidelity ecosystem, for providing long-term and patient growth capital for our companies," he adds.

Since it’s a single LP fund, the firm has already started deploying from it and has made its first investment in physician-only platforms for a programmatic messaging firm called Doceree.

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