Ascension Health Ventures (AHV), the corporate venturing unit of the eponymous US-based medical care alliance of non-profit hospitals formed last year, has closed its third fund at $225m.
The CHV III fund will invest in early- to later-stage healthcare companies in the services, information technology and medical device and diagnostic sectors that have the potential to deliver financial returns as well as support the strategic initiatives of the fund’s health system limited partners. AHV now manages $550m after closing its first fund in 2001 with $125m and its second in 2007 with $200m.
CHV I was funded entirely by Ascension Health, the nation’s largest Catholic and non-profit health system and a subsidiary of Ascension Health Alliance, while CHV II had an expanded limited partner base that included Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI), Catholic Health East (CHE) and Dignity Health (formerly Catholic Healthcare West).
Three new limited partners will join CHV III, including Intermountain Healthcare of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Decatur Memorial Hospital of Decatur, Illionois.
Anthony Tersigni, executive president of Ascension Health Alliance, said: “Through AHV we are supporting businesses whose products and services are improving healthcare in new, more efficient and cost-effective ways; helping to bend the cost curve and addressing the serious cost issues facing US healthcare. “At the same time, AHV’s successful investments bring capital into the health systems of all its partners; capital that helps them improve the quality and availability of care in their communities.”
Matt Hermann (pictured), senior managing director at AHV and a member of the Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist 100, added: “As healthcare changes from a fee-for-service to a fee-for-value business, venture investing models like AHV are playing an increasingly important role in the healthcare ecosystem by connecting entrepreneurial companies solving big problems to our impressive roster of limited partners who operate nearly 300 hospitals across the country.”
AHV’s last public deals were at the end of 2011, when it backed PathoGenetiX and Medventive.