Healthcare-focussed private equity firm OrbiMed has exceeded the amount targeted for its sixth Asia-centred vehicle after rolling out the vehicle last year.
OrbiMed, which has backed companies such as Entero Healthcare and Suraksha Diagnostics, rolled out its sixth fund OrbiMed Asia Partners VI of $850 million (around Rs 8,057 crore) in September last year.
VCCircle reported this June, the fund raised commitments close to $534 million from its limited partners (LPs) and general partners (GPs).
It now has collected over $1 billion for this vehicle, surpassing the initial target.
This new fund aims to make growth equity investments in 20-25 companies in the healthcare space, allocating around 40% of the committed capital to China and India.
Overall, OrbiMed has raised $3 billion across this vehicle and another private-equity fund to back European and US firms.
Investors in these new funds include a range of medical institutions, university endowments, foundations, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and family offices.
ADB as an LP
A separate disclosure from last year showed that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) was seeking to invest $125 million in OrbiMed's new Asia PE vehicle.
OrbiMed has previously raised five funds, each with a corpus ranging from $550-800 million. It has received backing from ADB in several of these Asia-focussed funds.
ADB previously backed OrbiMed's fifth fund with a $60 million equity investment in 2022. ADB also backed funds two, three and four between 2014-21 committing between $60-75 million.
Founded in 1989, the PE firm has over $17 billion in assets under management, with presence in New York City, London, San Francisco, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mumbai, and Herzliya. It invests in companies across the healthcare space, including biopharmaceutical products, medical technologies, medical devices, diagnostics, drug discovery tools, and healthcare information technology and services.
India presence
In India, OrbiMed has invested in several healthcare companies in the past. These include Suraksha Diagnostics, Advanced Enzyme, Blue Sapphire Healthcare, Entero Healthcare and Bharat Serums.
In January, the PE firm backed feminine hygiene brand Pee Safe in a $32-million growth funding round. In the medtech space, OrbiMed created a platform under Lattice MedTech, which provides end-to-end distribution, market access and expansion solutions in the medical device segment.
Global private equity players are increasing their exposure to India, with many opting to set up Asia-centred funds targeting India and Japan.
On Tuesday, alternative asset manager Blackstone raised $13.1 billion for its Asia private equity fund, exceeding its initial target and marking its largest such fundraise in the region. Sweden-based EQT raised $15.6 billion to create the region's largest private equity fund.
In May, bulge-bracket private equity firm Bain Capital held the final close of its sixth pan-Asian fund, raising $10.5 billion and well surpassing its $7 billion target.
