Dr BS Ajaikumar launches Inviga Healthcare Fund

Bengaluru: Dr BS Ajaikumar, Founder and Executive Chairman, HealthCare Global Enterprises Ltd (HCG) announced the launch of Inviga Healthcare Fund (IHF), a thematic healthcare-focused private equity fund headquartered in Bengaluru.

Co-founded by Ajay Garg, Founder and Managing Director, Equirus Capital. Having secured an initial close of $20 million, the fund is poised to empower entrepreneurs and drive meaningful change across the entire Indian healthcare value chain.

Dr Ajaikumar said, "In my over 35 years as a doctor-entrepreneur in India, I have witnessed first-hand both the strengths and weaknesses of our healthcare system. Inviga Health Fund is my response which embodies my desire to provide high-quality egalitarian healthcare to all sections of society, while supporting and positioning doctor/healthcare entrepreneurs as primary drivers in the business. Through our investments, we will support the blossoming Indian healthcare entrepreneur ecosystem, foster clinical excellence, focus tenaciously on quality of outcomes, drive deep social impact and help build businesses on sustainable vectors."

Ajay Garg, Co-Founder, Inviga Healthcare Fund, said, We see the prospect of transforming the Indian healthcare landscape in a meaningful way, one investment at a time. A doctor-driven thematic healthcare and lifesciences fund in India is a rarity. This gives us a unique vantage point that helps transcend critical technical barriers that otherwise typically exist between healthcare entrepreneurs and their financiers and creates win-win situations that not only benefit the business and investors, but also contribute significantly to the progress of Indian healthcare."

In its maiden investment, the Bengaluru-based Inviga Healthcare Fund has announced support for Mynvax, a biotech start-up focused on developing novel recombinant vaccines for human respiratory viral diseases, including seasonal influenza and COVID-19.

Rakshith Rangarajan, Fund Manager, Inviga Healthcare Fund, stated, "The current options globally are riddled with technological inadequacies that have substantially rendered the flu vaccine a seasonal friend with limited scalability, making it accessible primarily to the affluent, unless subsidised. The innovations at Mynvax, led by its highly qualified team, have indeed made tangible the prospect of an improved flu shot that can finally find its way into the hands of the lesser privileged in India and across the globe. This has far-reaching positive societal and economic implications, and resonates with the fund’s values of democratising healthcare, its commitment to Indian healthcare entrepreneurship and technological innovation and excellence."

Inviga will support healthcare and pharmaceutical/lifescience enterprises throughout the entire value chain, utilising its extensive sector-specific knowledge, global connections, and a distinctive blend of entrepreneurial, clinical, investment, banking, and executive management expertise.