Israeli VC Raises $175M To Invest In HealthTech, FoodTech

An Israeli venture capital firm has raised $175 million for its dedicated healthcare fund, which it will use to invest in healthtech, life sciences and foodtech and ag-tech startups. 

Pitango VC has already used some of the capital from the new Pitango HealthTech II fund to invest in Nevia Bio, which is developing an AI platform to assist in the early detection of women’s health diseases, and QuantHealth.ai, which creates AI-led clinical trial simulations to accelerate and de-risk drug development. 

The firm, which is based in Herzliya in central Israel, has previously invested in startups such as Laguna Health, developer of an app that helps patients recover at home following their discharge from the hospital; and CLEW, an AI-platform that enhances a hospital’s ICU capacity by providing staff with current and predicted patient conditions across units.

“Despite the global and local macroeconomic challenges, the healthcare sector continues to show resilience and growth,” said Ittai Harel, Managing Partner at Pitango HealthTech.

“Recent events such as the pandemic, decentralization of healthcare, and value-based care, have resulted in unprecedented openness towards the adoption of new technologies,” he said.

“We’re launching this new fund to continue to back entrepreneurs and invest in companies that are revolutionizing the healthcare industry.”

The Pitango HealthTech Fund invests in companies that are at a range of stages of development from seed to commercial stage. Since 1993, Pitango has invested in over 250 companies and seen more than 85 either become publicly traded companies or acquired by strategic players.