A decade or more after setting up the golden age of corporate venturing units were set up with a focus on life sciences and healthcare, such as US-listed conglomerate Alphabet’s GV (formerly known as Google Ventures) and US-listed drugs company Merck’s Global Health Innovation Fund (GHIF), and the returns have surpassed many expectations.
GHIF has seen $6.2bn of exits in the past 18 months as the covid-19 pandemic has increased attention on the sector, according to Venture Capital Journal (VCJ).
William Taranto, president of GHIF, told the VCJ he expected to see six more exits this year following on from Livongo’s exit to Teladoc for $18.5bn, Preventice Solutions’ acquisition by Boston Scientific for $1bn, the sale of Asuragen to Bio-Techne for $215m and Exostar’s private equity purchase by Thoma Bravo for $100m.
These exits among others have seen GHIF’s $500m evergreen fund repaid more than twice, Taranto, who is also co-chairman of the Global Healthcare Council, told the VCJ in its latest issue.
He added telemedicine, remote monitoring and clinical trials as well as artificial intelligence and therapeutics were important.
Originally founded by Bill Maris in 2009, GV said life sciences and healthcare deals cover care delivery, health IT, devices, diagnostics and therapeutics investments and made up more than a third of its portfolio. This means more than 80 portfolio companies and home runs including Clover Health, which agreed a $3.7bn reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company in October, and Oscar, which had a blow-out flotation in March to raise $1.44bn.
All investors in healthcare have seemingly reaped the rewards, as my colleagues Kaloyan Andonov and Rob Lavine noted on healthcare sector exits after Oscar’s initial public offering. And more seem to be on the way, which will encourage further dealmaking and investments.
Corporate-backed deals in Healthcare IT/Administration 2011-21
