Kotak Alternate Asset hits first close of third life sciences-focused PE fund

Kotak Alternate Asset Managers Ltd, the alternative asset management arm of Kotak Mahindra Group, said Thursday it has marked the first close of its third healthcare and life sciences-focused private equity fund. 

The firm marked the first close of the Kotak Life Sciences Fund after raising Rs 250 crore from family offices, ultra-high-net-worth individuals, industry veterans, and institutions, it said in a statement. It didn’t disclose the investors’ names. 

The fund is targeting a corpus of Rs 1,600 crore and will deploy the capital in early- to growth-stage companies in life sciences (pharma/biotech), medical devices, digital health, consumer wellness, diagnostics and delivery, among others. 

The development comes nearly four months after VCCircle first reported that Kotak Alt, formerly known as Kotak Investment Advisors Ltd, was raising capital for its third healthcare and life sciences-focused private equity fund, targeting a corpus of up to $200 million (approximately Rs 1,680 crore at the exchange rate then). VCCircle also reported that the firm aims to make the fund’s first close between December and January. 

“In the past 24 months, Kotak Alt has deployed close to Rs 4,000 crore in the life sciences segment, across different pools of capital,” said Ashish Ranjan, director of private equity at Kotak Alternate Asset Managers. “The fund will focus on backing companies built for the next 10 years wherein the intent is to support companies in their early days of growth,” he added. 

Kotak raised its first life sciences-focused fund, Kotak India Venture Fund I, in 2007. The fund invested in five companies across the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors. These were Intas Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Advanced Enzyme Technologies Ltd, Rubicon Research Pvt. Ltd, Natco Pharma Ltd, and wellness firm Indus Biotech Pvt. Ltd.   

The second fund launched in 2017 with a target corpus of Rs 500 crore, or about $68 million then, and invested in more than a dozen companies. 

Set up in 2005, Kotak Alternate Asset manages over $22 billion across different asset classes including private equity, real estate, infrastructure, special situations, private credit and investment advisory. 

In the healthcare sector, Kotak Strategic Situations Fund II invested Rs 1,445 crore in June last year to part-finance Matrix Pharma Pvt Ltd’s acquisition of Viatris Inc’s Indian active pharmaceutical ingredients business.