Milind Shah, Former MD of Medtronic India, Joins Unitus Seed Fund as Healthcare Venture Partner

Bengaluru: Unitus Seed Fund, India’s leading impact venture fund investing in early-stage startups innovating for the masses, announced the joining of Milind Shah as a Healthcare Venture Partner.

Milind Shah is a Proven Healthcare Operational Executive in the Indian Sub-Continent.

Milind brings to Unitus Seed Fund over three decades of leadership experience in sales, marketing, and corporate planning positions across varied businesses, including healthcare and speciality chemicals with global industry majors like Medtronic, Henkel, 3M and Shell.

As Managing Director & VP Indian Sub-continent with Medtronic plc, a global leader in the medical technology industry, Milind led the operational and strategic plans for this region for 11 years.

Milind was also a member of Medtronic’s global executive committee and a recipient of the prestigious Wallin award that recognises Medtronic leaders for business growth and talent development. Under Milind’s leadership, Medtronic India achieved and sustained market leadership across several businesses and delivered strong double digit revenue growth.

Milind brings a deep understanding of the healthcare eco-system, a strong network of relationships amongst upper echelons of medical technology companies and hospital chains, as well as hands on experience in developing & executing strategic plans, business model innovations and M&A.

Milind joins Unitus Seed Fund with a mandate of furthering healthcare innovation for India’s billion plus population by investing in 8-10 innovative and scalable healthcare businesses.

In line with this aim, Unitus Seed Fund has earmarked INR 100 crore to invest in healthcare and also has launched the AmpHealth program, providing non-dilutive catalytic capital of up to INR 1.75 crore (USD $250, 000) to fund immediate pre-commercialisation coupled with up to INR 3.5 crore (USD $500, 000) of seed capital.

Unitus is also currently running the fourth edition of its annual StartHealth competition, offering cash prize and access to expertise to the best AI, analytics, devices and home health early-stage startups.

Further, Milind will also work closely with Unitus’ investees to prepare them for growth and follow-on funding by providing access to global healthcare practitioners, teaching and operating medical facilities.

“Chronic diseases are responsible for over 50 per cent of deaths in India. Yet, public expenditure on health remains one of the lowest, globally. Startups are making significant inroads by reducing financial barriers and accelerating innovation to make healthcare more accessible and affordable”, said Milind Shah, Healthcare Venture Partner, Unitus Seed Fund.

“Unitus Seed Fund’s strong healthcare focus, mentorship and global industry connections will deeply benefit startups, helping them launch their products, raise additional funding and scale faster. I am excited to partner with Unitus Seed Fund and utilize my experience to advance healthcare, particularly to India’s low-income masses.”

“Providing new means of affordable healthcare access is no small task. Our commitment to healthcare is visible not just through our seed funding, but in how we work with these teams holistically. In addition to catalytic and seed funding, we have also built a highly-focused network of industry leaders and global healthcare companies to accelerate their growth. We’re extremely pleased to have Milind Shah help lead our efforts to sustainably improve healthcare in India.”, said Dave Richards, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Unitus Seed Fund.