New Delhi, June 2 -- Healthcare-focused private equity firm OrbiMed has collected close to two-thirds of the target corpus for its sixth Asia fund since rolling it out last year.
The PE firm, which has backed companies such as Entero Healthcare and Suraksha Diagnostics in India, rolled out its sixth Asia fund in September last year with an aim to raise $850 million. OrbiMed, like many global PE firms, invests in India through its Asia funds and doesn't have a separate India vehicle.
The fund, OrbiMed Asia Partners VI, has raised commitments of close to $534 million from 45 limited partners and general partners, according to a disclosure. A separate disclosure from last year showed that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) was seeking to invest $125 million in the new PE vehicle.
The new fund aims to make growth equity investments in 20-25 companies in the healthcare sector, allocating around 40% of the committed capital to China and India.
Queries sent to OrbiMed managing director Sunny Sharma remained unanswered by the time of writing this article.
OrbiMed has previously raised five Asia funds, each with a corpus ranging from $550 million to $800 million. It has received backing from the ADB in several of these Asia-focused funds.
The ADB previously backed OrbiMed's fifth Asia fund with a $60 million equity investment in 2022. It also invested in the second, third and fourth Asia funds between 2014 and 2021 committing between $60 million and $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 sector, including biopharmaceutical products, medical technologies, medical devices, diagnostics, drug discovery tools, and healthcare information technology and services.
In India, OrbiMed has invested in several healthcare companies in the past. These include Suraksha Diagnostic, Advanced Enzyme, Blue Sapphire Healthcare, Entero Healthcare, and Bharat Serums.
In January, the PE firm backed feminine hygiene brand Pee Safe as part of a $32 million growth funding round. In the medtech segment, 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 Asia, with many opting to set up regional funds targeting countries from India to Japan.
On Tuesday, alternative asset manager Blackstone said it raised $13.1 billion for its new Asia private equity fund, exceeding its initial target and marking its largest such fundraise in the region. Last month, 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 surpassing its $7 billion target.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.