Healthcare centric VC firm Healthquad closes Rs 75 crore corpus

Healthcare focused venture capital firm Healthquad has closed Rs 75 crore to invest in thematic and disruptive healthcare business models in India. The fund is also the first early stage investment vehicle by the leading healthcare private equity investors, Amit Varma, Abrar Mir and Charles Antione Janssen.

The Fund aims to invest around Rs 400 crore in healthcare companies that have the potential to disrupt the healthcare landscape by dramatically improving the productivity, affordability and accessibility of healthcare through differentiated and innovative solutions.

Founded in January 2016, Healthquad has been registered with SEBI as a Category I Alternative Investment Fund. The firm targets five key healthcare sub-sectors including healthcare delivery services, life-sciences, medical devices & technology, healthcare IT and associated healthcare services. It is looking to invest in 8-10 companies this year.

Fund’s sponsor Amit Varma said, "Healthcare sector has seen emergence of over 500 startups in the last two years and venture capital firms have infused around Rs 25 billion. We are looking to deploy around INR 4 billion, along with co-investors and partner funds in healthcare models that are driven by new age disruptive technology and are changing the way healthcare is delivered and accessed in India."

Prior to this, the fund has already made investment in four companies including the recently announced investment in Regency Healthcare.

The Indian healthcare sector is valued at over Rs 7 trillion and is growing at a rate of over 15% per annum making it one of the most attractive sectors for investment by the private sector. An imperative part within all this is the new age models that are unshackling the traditional forms of healthcare delivery and products including digitization of services and product innovation and disintermediation of delivery models. All these are being driven by the need to provide access, affordability and quality.