The fund, which is backed by Fidelity, said Kothari will enhance Eight Roads’ “ongoing efforts in the country to back entrepreneurs of early-growth stage companies and identify new investment opportunities across the healthcare and life sciences value chains”.
Eight Roads’ healthcare team in India has invested in over 25 businesses. This year, the fund has backed companies, including Enzene Biosciences, a subsidiary of Alkem Laboratories, and Enko, a crop health firm.
In May 2022, Eight Roads announced its first dedicated $250 million healthcare and life sciences fund for India.
Prem Pavoor, senior partner, head of India and healthcare investments at Eight Roads Ventures, said, “Chintan’s arrival is another example of our commitment to continue to grow our team to meet the explosive growth in opportunities we foresee in the Indian healthcare industry.”
“His experience and network will be invaluable given both the breadth and reach of our existing investments, and our ambition to partner with exceptional founders within life sciences, healthcare services, consumer health and digital health,” he added.
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Kothari will be based in Mumbai, the investment firm said in a statement. He has joined Eight Roads from financial services firm Avendus Capital where he led the healthcare vertical for their investment banking business.Before that, he led the healthcare and consumer investment banking verticals for Citigroup and has also worked with Rothschild in India.
On his appointment, Kothari said, “Healthcare in India is evolving at break neck speed and I believe that we’re going to witness more innovation in the sector over the next few years. This is an exciting time to be part of the startup ecosystem and I am delighted to be joining Eight Roads as we bring our collective experiences to support and scale-up category leaders.”
The firm’s global platform has backed over 120 healthcare companies of which more than 50 have listed in the public markets.
Eight Roads has deployed more than $1.5 billion of venture capital in the country, and has backed the likes of software platforms Whatfix, Icertis and online pharmacy startup Pharmeasy.