All Access

Health Tech Deals

Health Tech Deals Alerts

Alert

Standard

Health Tech Deals Thought Bubble

Thought Bubble

mustard

BFD Expert Voices - Health Tech Deals

BFD Expert Voices

Venture Investors Health Fund raised $80 million for its Fund 7, the firm tells Axios Pro exclusively.

Why it matters: The firm invests in academic spinouts, which are vulnerable to planned cuts to National Institutes of Health funding. 

What they're saying: "Early-stage companies doing health care work are very fragile, and the change in NIH funding was a big blow to them," says Jim Adox, executive managing director. "[It] will make their future roads more challenging."

The big picture: House Republicans are rejecting President Trump's nearly $20 billion proposed NIH cut in a rare show of bipartisan support for biomedical research, but there are still significant cuts in other areas.

How it works: The firm works with Midwestern universities to create businesses out of research projects. 

"They're brilliant Ph.D.s and MDs, but they're not CEOs and VPs of marketing and VPs of clinical," Adox says. "So we help build that team to take it from pure hardcore research and then move it into development."

Around half of its investments begin from university-related projects.

"Now we seek it out," Adox says. "We aggressively seek it out. We have strong relationships within these universities."

Zoom in: Venture Investors Health Fund backs medical device companies along with diagnostics, digital health and pharma startups.

The firm has already made five investments from Fund 7 out of a planned total between 10 and 12. It writes checks between $500,000 and $3.5 million.

Follow the money: Overall, the firm has invested nearly $333 million across 88 companies. Its sixth fund's investments include HistoSonics, which sold a majority stake last month for $2.25 billion to a consortium of investors.

It currently manages $360 million in assets and closed Fund 6 in 2018 at $75m.

To date, VI has invested in over 40 university spinouts.

Exclusive: Venture Investors Health Fund raises $80M

The firm will use the fund to work with companies that impact the Midwest.

Venture Investors Health Fund raised $80 million for its Fund 7, the firm tells Axios Pro exclusively.Why it matters: The firm invests in academic spinouts, which are vulnerable to planned cuts to National Institutes of Health funding.

topics

politics-policy

epstein-files

donald-trump

2026-midterm-elections

immigration

behind-the-curtain

race-and-equity

technology

privacy-tech-regulation

automation-and-ai

tiktok-news

big-tech

social-media

cybersecurity

economy

social-security

inflation

tariffs

federal-reserve

transportation

business

c-suite

retail-news

media

elon-musk

dealmaking

health

rfk-jr

drug-prices

axios-explains-abortion

public-health

world

israel

axios-explains-ukraine

iran

russia

china

energy-climate

nuclear-energy

climate-energy-policy

climate-change

extreme-weather

alternative-energy

electric-vehicles

science

emerging-tech

biomedicine

newsletters

charlotte

salt-lake-city

denver

boulder

kansas-city

austin

chicago

dallas

detroit

washington-dc

atlanta

indianapolis

nashville

nw-arkansas

columbus

richmond

san-francisco

boston

des-moines

houston

phoenix

miami

philadelphia

seattle

new-orleans

colorado-springs

huntsville

raleigh

san-antonio

twin-cities

pittsburgh

arapahoe

douglas

san-diego

tampa-bay

portland

cleveland

axios-local

axios-pro

axios-live

the-axios-show

Exclusive: Venture Investors Health Fund raises $80M

What to read next