Tuesday saw the healthcare-focused venture capital fund W Health Ventures announce the completion of fundraising for its second investment fund, securing commitments totaling 700 crore rupees.
Pankaj Jethwani, Managing Partner at W Health Ventures, told Business Standard that the capital raised in the second fund exceeded the initial target of 630 crore rupees. The fund plans to invest in eight to ten medical companies.
These funds are intended to be used as seed financing for healthcare startups that will be incubated by W Health Ventures under a company-building model. Jethwani emphasized that the fund will not provide cheques to existing startups but will focus exclusively on building new companies.
This process involves taking an idea, working on it for 12–24 months, and rigorously testing its viability. Once an idea or concept is prioritized, the fund forms a founding team around it and then proceeds with launching and scaling the project.
Unlike the first fund, which incubated only four to five companies, the second fund will be entirely dedicated to company building. The fund has already begun deploying the second fund, providing seed funding to Everhope Oncology, which was co-founded with Narayana Health in March 2025. Investments were also made in the US-based mental health technology platform Everbright Health.
Jethwani noted that two companies have already been built under the second fund, with a third expected soon. The fund has a four-year investment horizon and aims to support two to three companies annually.
The Limited Partners (LPs) of the second fund include family offices and institutions from both India and the US interested in the Indian healthcare sector. Although the first fund was established in the US, W Health's second fund is registered as an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) Category II with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
Typically, the venture fund invests amounts ranging from 30 to 50 crore rupees, targeting niche, first-to-market healthcare solutions. Jethwani explained that the focus on specialization is part of their approach because the fund aims to solve problems rather than just address an industry.
He described this model as a good business model because narrow specialization facilitates efficient capital accumulation with lower capital expenditure. Moving forward, the fund plans to concentrate on two areas: using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to address the supply-demand imbalance in Indian healthcare, and transforming India into a global healthcare superpower. The latter direction will involve supporting AI-based healthcare services capable of developing comprehensive solutions for global markets.
