Eight Roads launches $250 million healthcare and lifescience fund


Eight Roads launches $250 million healthcare and lifescience fund
 Eight Roads, a global investment firm backed by Fidelity, has launched its first dedicated India healthcare and life sciences fund of $250 million, making it the largest pool of capital available for the sector in the country. 
“The healthcare market in India is at a tipping point. We have seen that play out in the markets such as China and the US,” Prem Pavoor, senior partner, head of India, and healthcare investments at Eight Roads Ventures, told ET. 
Though the sector has been a mainstay for the firm for the last decade and a half that it has been active in India, “now was the time for a dedicated sector focused fund,” he added. 
“We will make early to growth stage bets on companies and can go up to $40 million in an investment,” Pavoor said. It will look to back at around 15-20 companies in lifesciences, healthcare services, consumer health, and digital health sectors. “We are looking to deploy this capital over the next three to four years,” he added. 
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. 
Eight Roads has been one of the active global investors in the region. With total assets under management of $1.6 billion in India, it has backed healthcare companies such as Laurus Labs, Pharmeasy, Cipla Health, and Toothsi among others from its generalist fund. 
In 2021 alone, Eight Roads made 12 investments in existing portfolio as well as new companies. It has backed over 60 companies across its two main sectors of focus – healthcare and technology. Beyond healthcare, the firm has backed over 30 technology scale-ups in India, making 21 investments (including new and follow-on) in 2021. 
“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.” Our ecosystem lends us capacity and scale, setting up powerful efficiencies, deep domain expertise, and the ability to trace trends and understanding across geographies.” 
The Eight Roads network constitutes a venture platform that now manages over $8 billion of capital across China, India, Japan, Europe, and the US.