Wockhardt ED Huzaifa Khorakiwala to raise Rs 125 cr for health fund

The fund will seek to invest in around 30 healthcare start-ups of under 3 years of operations with qualified team, proof of concept, revenue & business traction. It will focus on emerging firms using technology as an enabler or driver in healthcare, it said.

Having managed and grown a healthcare unicorn in India, Khorakiwala, the scion of the Wockhardt family, wants to strengthen the healthcare start-up ecosystem and support creation of more healthcare unicorns from India.

"India's healthcare vertical touching USD 150 billion needs a lot more disruptive ideas to provide new age solutions to conventional health problems. The scale of unserved markets need technology enablers to solve conventional health problems and this needs encouragement and support of industry players.

"Global precedents show this can reduce cost and response time, and increase efficiency of the sector. Besides, this can create more domestic jobs," the statement quoted Khorakiwala as saying.

"We will also help our funded start-ups to rollout a no-frill version of their product for the masses and thus create a well-funded basket of inclusive healthcare solutions for Indian masses."

ProHealth Catalyst will be the investment advisor of the fund and its key members are Sumit K Mody and Anand Oswal.

Prior to this, Mody led setting up of Healthcare Innovations Fund for Sunil Wadhwani of iGate, while Oswal has been Executive Director at UBS Singapore.

Mody said, "Breaking from the tradition of deal showcasing and blind faith on fund manager's investment calls, our fund intends to provide our investors real time discretion to accept or reject each of our investment proposals.

"Also, our sector-focused approach will allow us to do better integration of portfolio companies for exit, growth and further funding within the next 2-3 years.