W Health Ventures, a venture capital firm with roots in Boston and India, has launched its second flagship fund with a corpus of $70 million (Rs 609 crore), aimed at nurturing and creating early-stage startups in healthcare and healthtech across India and the United States. Founded in 2019 by serial entrepreneur and philanthropist Sunil Wadhwani, W Health Ventures is committed to a hands-on “company creation” model that goes beyond traditional investing to build transformative healthcare companies from the ground up.
Deepening Commitment to Healthcare Innovation
With Fund II, W Health Ventures plans to back eight to ten startups over the next four years, offering an extensive support system that includes research and development, minimum viable product (MVP) development, go-to-market strategies, and clinical partnerships. This approach leverages India’s rich engineering and clinical talent pool to create scalable, global healthcare businesses.
Dr. Pankaj Jethwani, Managing Partner at W Health Ventures, highlighted that healthcare innovation in India lags behind global benchmarks by 10–15 years, identifying this gap as a generational opportunity for impactful innovation. Fund II reflects a strategic shift towards larger investments—between $3 million to $5 million per startup initially—with deeper operational involvement and support throughout the company-building journey.
Focus Areas: Oncology, Psychiatry, and Beyond
The fund emphasizes sectors that have compelling patient needs and significant innovation white spaces, such as:
Oncology: Improving cancer care delivery with standardized, patient-centric platforms.
Psychiatry: Supporting mental health services through technology-enabled managed service platforms.
Geriatric Care, Longevity & Preventive Health: Addressing the rising challenges of aging populations and chronic disease prevention.
Fund II’s inaugural investments include EverHope Oncology, incubated jointly with Narayana Health, focusing on enhancing chemotherapy, surgical oncology, diagnostics, and supportive care with a $10 million seed investment. Another stealth-mode psychiatry startup is developing a US-India cross-border managed services platform to optimize practice management, outcomes, and revenue for psychiatry clinics in the United States.
A Robust Company Creation Model
Unlike many venture capital funds that spread risk across many startups, W Health ventures adopts a concentrated investment strategy focusing on building category-defining companies through its “venture studio” model partnered with 2070 Health. This approach allows for ideation, validation, and scaling internally before bringing external founders on board, ensuring a strong product-market fit and operational discipline.
According to Dr. Jethwani, “Ninety-three percent of ideas get killed” in their rigorous screening, underlining how conviction and careful validation are central to their high-engagement model. This model is particularly effective in healthcare’s complex, regulated environment where slow adoption and clinical challenges often hinder innovation.
Building India’s Healthcare Future with Global Impact
W Health Ventures’ portfolio from its maiden fund highlights its impact, having backed companies such as Wysa (mental health), BeatO (chronic disease management), Mylo (parenting), and Nivaan (elder care), collectively serving over 25 million patients worldwide.
With Fund II, the firm is scaling this impact, aiming not only at digital health but also at offline care delivery improvements, AI-enabled services, and international go-to-market strategies, supported by expanding its leadership team with seasoned operating partners.
India’s Healthcare Sector at a Pivotal Moment
India’s healthcare market, valued at approximately $370 billion, is undergoing a structural shift driven by rising patient expectations and global interest in scalable healthcare innovations. Fund II by W Health Ventures is well-positioned to fill critical gaps in clinical service delivery and tech-enabled healthcare B2B services, particularly for US healthcare providers seeking to leverage Indian clinical and engineering talent.
Dr. Jethwani emphasizes, “We’re not a healthtech fund, we’re a healthcare fund. We build companies that can change the standard of care for millions of patients.”
Why This Matters for India: The launch of W Health Ventures Fund II signals growing investor confidence in India’s healthcare innovation ecosystem. By combining capital, strategic know-how, and a hands-on incubation model, the fund aims to catalyze a new wave of healthcare startups that address India’s unique challenges while delivering scalable solutions worldwide. For Indian entrepreneurs and healthcare professionals, this is a vital opportunity to develop impactful solutions that can redefine patient care, leverage AI and technology, and bridge the innovation gap with global standards.