Fidelity International venture capital arm, Eight Roads Ventures, led a Rs 45 crore Series A funding round in veterinary pharmaceutical startup Ashish Life Science. This round also saw participation by Netherlands-based food and agriculture-focused fund Anterra Capital.
The latest investment will see Eight Roads Partner Prem Pavoor, who leads the investment firm’s life sciences, healthcare and healthcare information technology practice, join Ashish Life Science’s board, reported the Economic Times.
The development comes about two weeks after Eight Roads, along with its US-based sister fund F-Prime Capital, announced a Rs 218 crore investment in Caplin Steriles, the injectables unit of Caplin Point Laboratories.
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“With Ashish Life Science, we continue to participate in the broader pharmaceutical sector, and in the core capabilities that India has established, which are applicable equally to human and animal health – generic product development, high-quality manufacturing and regulatory expertise. The last of these is becoming increasingly important as inspection authorities globally become more stringent”,” Pavoor told ET over the phone.
Founded by Raujesh Agarrwal, Ashish Life Science will use the proceeds from the Series A round to scale its business, while also expanding into regulated markets. The company, which has 100-plus product portfolio, has a presence in 50 countries and is looking to expand into Europe, Australia and South Africa.
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“With the Series A funding, we are focusing on deepening our presence in the semi-regulated markets and tapping into the veterinary generics segment in the regulated markets,” Agarrwal said in a statement.
Eight Roads, which is the proprietary investment arm of Fidelity International Limited, the multinational financial services behemoth, has been an active investor in the country’s broader healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors.