TVM’s debut MENA-focused fund holds $40m first close

TVM Capital has raised $40 million for the first close of TVM Capital MENA, its maiden healthcare fund focused on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

It is unclear how much the Sharia-compliant fund, a joint venture between TVM Capital and Dubai-based advisory firm Boston BioCapital, aims to raise. TVM did not respond to requests for comment at press time. 

The fund’s founding investors include its Dubai-based management firm TVM Capital MENA; healthcare-focused investment firm Saudi Health Investment Company; the World Bank’s private investment arm, the International Finance Corporation; and GE Healthcare, a healthcare-focused subsidiary of General Electric. Hoda Abou-Jamra, who heads Boston BioCapital, is a founding partner of the fund, according to a TVM Capital statement.

Within the health care services sector, the growth capital fund will invest in specialised clinics, medical laboratories, small hospitals, diagnostic imaging centres, providers of outsourced services to healthcare delivery facilities, clinical trial management services and health care information technology and insurance. Within the life sciences sector, it will target pharmaceutical and life science product companies involved in the licensing, import, manufacture and distribution of medicines, medical devices and diagnostics, the statement noted. 

TVM Capital MENA will soon close its first two investments, Marios Fotiadis, the firm’s managing director, said in the statement. There is significant investment opportunity in the MENA region, which has a large population and is experiencing GDP growth, as it is chronically undersupplied, both qualitatively and quantitatively, in the healthcare sector, he added.

Fotiadis, who previously spent two years as a TVM general partner in Munich and Boston, will lead the firm’s operations in the MENA region. TVM Capital MENA’s investment team includes Youssef Haidar, formerly a managing director at asset management firm Unifund Capital, and Frank Christ, a managing partner of healthcare services advisory firm Munich Medical International.

“Our relationship with the Saudi Health Investment Company will translate into an increased presence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other countries, especially in the GCC and Egypt, where Saudi Health Investment Company is a leading investor in healthcare services,” Helmut Schühsler, TVM Capital MENA’s board chairman and a TVM managing partner, said in the statement.

Set up in 1983 as Techno Venture Management, the Munich- and Boston-based firm specialises in making early- and growth-stage investments in information and communications technology, biotech and life sciences. In 2006, it rebranded as TVM Capital, after closing its sixth life sciences fund on €240.3 million ($331 million) a year earlier. Presently, the firm manages approximately €850 million in committed capital for investments in the healthcare and life sciences sector.