Huzaifa Khorakiwala, executive director at drugmaker Wockhardt, is set to float a healthcare-focused angel fund that puts him among a clutch of business leaders, including Ratan Tata and Narayana Murthy, who have launched their own investment firms to tap into India's growing startup community.
The angel fund, christened 'Health Passion Fund', will have a corpus of Rs 125 crore along with a green-shoe option, The Economic Times reported, citing Khorakiwala, who is part of the promoter family of Wockhardt Group. He also heads the group's NGO division.
An email query sent to Khorakiwala did not elicit a response till the time of filing this report.
The fund will be launched in his personal capacity and is not related to the company in any way, he told the newspaper.
The fund, which is in the process of getting registered, will be led by Sumit Kumar Mody. Prior to this, Mody was in charge of setting up an early stage VC/angel fund for an unnamed former founder-chairman of an IT giant, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He has also been associated with investment platform Redefine India Partners, Essel Group's private equity and ICICI Bank, among others.
Health Passion Fund will invest in medical devices, SaaS, digital health and mobile health but will avoid pharmacy or hospitals, Mody told the newspaper. The ticket size of the fund is expected to be Rs 5 crore and it will enter portfolio firms at the pre-Series A and Series A stages.
With this fund Khorakiwala will join a fast expanding pool of new- and old-generation entrepreneurs who have carved out a part or all of their personal wealth into an investment vehicle with a formal fund manager.
RNT Associates, the privately held investment firm of Ratan Tata, in February announced that it is partnering with University of California, to jointly fund startups and early-stage enterprises in India. The proposed joint investment fund has received clearance from markets regulator Security Exchange Board of India (SEBI) under its Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) norms. Ratan Tata has been investing in startups in his personal capacity too.
Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy's private investment arm Catamaran has also been making investments in startups.
Early this year, serial healthcare entrepreneur GSK Velu, who last year sold his stake in pathology chain Metropolis Healthcare, launched two funds worth a total of $175 million to invest in healthcare delivery, consumer and enterprise technology segments.
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