W Health Ventures Unveils Ambitious Second Fund for Transformative Healthcare Investments
Early-stage healthcare venture capital firm W Health Ventures has embarked on a bold new chapter with the announcement of its second fund, signaling a strategic shift toward more ambitious and transformative investments in the healthcare sector. The firm has achieved an initial close of Fund II at ₹550 crore, with an ultimate target of ₹630 crore, and has already begun deploying capital from this new vehicle.
Fund II Details and Strategic Focus
The fund is currently approximately 87% subscribed, and the firm anticipates announcing the final close in the near future. This substantial capital pool will be directed toward company creation rather than traditional Series A or B investments, representing a fundamental shift in strategy. W Health Ventures plans to seed 8 to 10 startups over the next four years, with investments ranging from ₹30 to ₹50 crore per incubation.
Managing Partner Pankaj Jethwani emphasized the firm's commitment to identifying and addressing critical gaps in India's healthcare landscape. "We are looking for bolder bets with our second fund, building companies from the ground up in areas like oncology, longevity, and chronic pain management," Jethwani stated in an exclusive interview.
Flagship Investment and Oncology Innovation
The first portfolio company launched from Fund II is Everhope Oncology, established in March in partnership with the renowned hospital chain Narayana Health. This initiative aims to radically reimagine cancer care delivery across India.
"The patient experience in oncology is the same as though it was 20 years ago in India," Jethwani explained, highlighting systemic challenges. "Quality cancer care remains concentrated in specific centers of excellence and private spaces inaccessible to most patients. Most Indian cancer patients receive dated treatments."
Everhope Oncology is leveraging artificial intelligence to serve as a companion for cancer patients and assist doctors throughout treatment journeys. The company is developing both greenfield and brownfield centers, initially focusing on Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Delhi, with an ambitious goal of reaching 30,000 cancer patients this year alone.
Expanding Healthcare Horizons
Beyond oncology, W Health Ventures is exploring significant opportunities in several other healthcare domains that require similar transformation. The fund's investment thesis extends to:
- Longevity and modern preventive health
- Geriatrics and age-related care
- Chronic pain management solutions
- AI-enabled B2B services in the India-US corridor
"What the experience is with oncology is true for many other spaces like pain management, obesity management, or mental health," Jethwani noted. "The opportunity we are targeting is a generational opportunity."
Ground-Up Company Creation Approach
W Health Ventures maintains its distinctive ground-up methodology, which involves identifying white spaces in healthcare and then partnering with founders to build companies from scratch. This approach allows for extensive research and careful design of business models to support bold, innovative bets.
"Company creation gives us the time to research and design companies from scratch to take bold bets," Jethwani explained. "We look to both the East and West for inspiration, as well as for mistakes to anticipate and avoid."
He described this international perspective as a "time machine" for healthcare innovation: "You fly to China or the US. You know what the future of healthcare delivery can look like."
Track Record and Future Vision
The firm's Fund I portfolio includes several successful healthcare companies serving diverse needs:
- Nivaan (chronic pain management)
- BeatO (diabetes care)
- ElevateNow (obesity management)
- BabyMD (pediatrics)
- Mylo (parenting support)
Additionally, cross-border companies like Wysa (AI mental health services) and Reveal HealthTech (AI transformation services) have successfully raised external growth capital, demonstrating the firm's ability to scale innovative healthcare solutions.
Fund I companies currently serve approximately 25 million patients, but W Health Ventures has set an extraordinarily ambitious long-term goal: to positively impact one billion lives over the next two decades through its investment activities.
Jethwani contextualized the healthcare investment landscape by comparing it to other sectors: "With sectors like financial services or consumer, India is leading in many ways, but in a lot of sectors, think of deeptech, biotech innovation, healthcare—we are 15-20 years behind." This gap represents both the challenge and the monumental opportunity that W Health Ventures aims to address through its bold, ground-up investment strategy.
