W Health Ventures has announced the launch of its second investment fund, aiming to raise $70 million (INR 609 Cr) to support early-stage startups in the healthtech sector. The new fund includes a greenshoe option of $30 million (INR 261 Cr), offering the firm flexibility to expand its capital base.
The venture capital firm intends to invest in eight to ten startups over the next four years, with average ticket sizes ranging between $3 million and $5 million. According to managing partner Pankaj Jethwani, the firm is looking to reach the first close of the fund within the next few months.
Beyond funding, W Health plans to assist its portfolio companies in developing early minimum viable products (MVPs) through R&D support.
Founded in 2019 by Sunil Wadhwani, W Health Ventures focuses on early-stage investments and provides startups with access to research trials, product development support, go-to-market strategies, and a strong healthcare partner network in both India and the United States. The firm has previously invested in companies such as Wysa, BeatO, Mars by GHC, and MYLO.
With Fund II, W Health is sharpening its focus on areas such as cancer care, mental health, and elderly care. “Other spaces of interest include geriatric care or aging, and the plethora of health challenges that geriatric patients or seniors above the age of 65–70 face,” said Jethwani.
The firm is also open to platforms working in the domains of longevity and preventive care, though Jethwani acknowledged the commercial challenges in this segment. “It’s very hard to make a business in preventive health anywhere in the world. In India, it’s harder because insurance, most of the time, doesn’t cover preventive health solutions and services,” he added.
Primary care remains another area of interest, and W Health has already completed two investments under Fund II. The first is Everhope Oncology, a cancer care platform being developed in collaboration with Narayana Health, with a joint investment of around $10 million.
“The first one is an oncology platform called Everhope Oncology that we are building along with Narayana Health. We invested about $10 Mn there together with Narayana Health (hospital chain),” said Jethwani.
The second investment is in a stealth-mode psychiatry startup, with a formal announcement expected next month. W Health and a strategic partner have committed approximately $6.8 million to this venture.
“It’s a US-India corridor company (Indian companies with some semblance of a GTM strategy in the US) that serves the clinics, small or group clinics within the US market in the psychiatry space. So, it’s an investment that we’ve been working on for the last 18 months or so,” Jethwani said. The startup supports independent psychiatric clinics in launching operations, improving patient outcomes, and boosting clinic-level financial performance.
Reflecting on the firm’s evolving investment approach, Jethwani said W Health is taking a more hands-on role with Fund II. While its earlier investments were largely financial, the new strategy includes incubating and building companies from the ground up. The firm’s global portfolio now serves over 25 million patients.
Jethwani added that W Health’s strategy leverages both the healthcare talent ecosystem in India and commercial opportunities in the US, aiming to deliver scalable solutions with cross-border impact.
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