Dr. Vishal Gandhi
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
BIORx Venture Advisors Pvt. Ltd

Congratulations on completing a decade in Strategic and Financial Advisory. How would you describe your journey so far?
The journey has been nothing less than phenomenal. The many ups and downs have been a great learning as we continue to redefine and polish our work to successfully create, impact and excel!
A key consideration when we work with healthcare entrepreneurs is the amount of social impact they can create. It goes a step beyond just rising to have an influence in society — it is important to create that value. As a matter of fact, we take pride in our portfolio companies and the number of lives they have touched. We seek partnership with more such entrepreneurs because that’s our DNA.

How are you helping start-ups in terms of raising funds?
Fund Raising is a result of due diligence; our collaborate efforts with start-ups to create a robust business plan. A business plan with a focus on key areas such as right definition, direction, planning, implementation and monitoring. Our aim is always to make the business scalable and sustainable in the long term. It is a cumulative result of multifarious efforts which help the start-ups command a higher valuation at the time of fund raising. So, we see ourselves as “Growth Partners” working closely with start-ups and not just as catalysers in fund raising.

BIORx has a strong network connecting a large number of domestic and institutional bankers/financial institutions/hedge funds/private equity funds/venture capital funds/multilateral institutions, angel investors etc. who we reach out to and connect to the start-ups for the fund-raising rounds.
We also have an angel network Indian Healthcare Angels (IHA) which is an initiative by BIORx. IHA was incubated with the aim to provide a seamless private platform to all the angel investors to invest in early-stage ventures (Healthcare, Med-tech, Life Sciences, Pharma, Aggrotech, Biotech, Digital Health Start-ups, and allied social sectors). Our members get exclusive access to our deals on priority, before they are out in the market.

Tell us a little about your vision and your upcoming projects?

BIORx Venture Advisors (BVA) has assisted SMEs and mid-corporates in raising capital (equity and debt through M&A) in excess of INR 1000 crore. According to Dr Gandhi, BVA has been a preferred partner in Financial & Strategic Advisory to initiatives in Healthcare, Cleantech, Biotech, Agritech, and Edtech over the past ten years.
He says: “Seeing the current scenario amidst COVID, we realised the need to foster a wider range of audience to leverage technology”. This inspired BVA to structure a Tech-Platform to connect all stakeholders to accelerate their journey from Idea to Investment to create the highest impact. By 2030, the company aims to establish a world-class, impact-focused business accelerator that will work with all stakeholders to achieve sustainability. BIORx Venture Advisors’ objective is to facilitate long-term growth through increasing shareholder value by developing complete, tailored solutions to its clients’ financial and business development concerns, and to become India’s most valued financial and strategic partner.

How do you see the future of the healthcare industry in terms of opportunities. How will BVA be able to create an impact in the same situation?
Healthcare as an industry has always been a focussed sector but there is always scope to improve. The onset of COVID 19 exposed the various insecurities and loop holes that exist in the sector. The probable solution to curbing these shortcomings is avid use of technology which can bring a transformative effect.
Many start-ups are trying to leverage on technology to bridge the gaps in the healthcare sector and make healthcare services more accessible to the end user. Our goal is to support these start-ups with the right guidance, strategic growth advisory and financial needs facilitation. We believe these small and collective efforts will eventually help foster the current healthcare industry in a more impactful manner.

How is BIORx differentiated in approach in solving short, medium and long term goals for your clients?

We provide customised end to end solutions starting from Market Research going all the way till Transaction Advisory Support.
We are helped our clients with their documentation needs such as Financial Model, Information Memorandum and other related documents and then we also support them with Strategic Alliances and Strategic Investments. When we say Investments we focus not just on capital but Smart Capital.

Then we have our clients who trust us with our Business Expansion services which will include JV Partner Search, Acquisition Opportunities and M&A support.
Financial Expertise along with deep roots in the Healthcare sector has made us the preferred partners for growth.