LBS alumna launches new healthtech start-up fund

Last week saw the launch of an early-stage healthtech fund by Dr. Fiona Pathiraja, a former consultant radiologist and alumna of London Business School’s Executive MBA London (2017). 

From its offices in London and Copenhagen, Crista Galli Ventures invests in pan-European healthtech start-ups, focusing on deep tech, digital health and personalised healthcare. It has backed 15 companies, including Skin Analytics, Contextflow and Quibim.

The fund has deep LBS links: Fiona’s Executive MBA classmate Søren Fryland Møller is partner and CEO of its backer, IPQ Capital, and several LBS names – alumni Gianluca D’Avanzo and Petar Jovanovic as well as professor Andrew Likierman – are on the advisory board. 

Partnering with early-stage founders to build world leading companies, Crista Galli Ventures (CGV) has tailored its strategy to the needs of ambitious healthtech entrepreneurs, and the unique industry in which they operate. 

According to Fiona, healthtech investors need to be patient and empathetic to how the industry really works on the inside. Set up with a single investor (Limited Partner) and operating as an “evergreen” fund - meaning it doesn’t follow traditional five-year VC fundraising cycles - CGV can be a patient and empathetic investor.

Fiona believes that we are on the cusp of a healthtech wave. “Healthcare is digitising now and it is the perfect time to build the solutions that will shape the healthcare industry for decades to come,” she says.

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