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Royal Philips Electronics has joined Gilde Healthcare III – a new venture capital fund focusing on innovative early and growth stage healthcare technology companies in Europe and the USA that are active in developing and commercialising new patient-centric healthcare solutions, medical technologies and therapeutics.
Philips’ anchor investment in Gilde Healthcare III is in line with its policy of open innovation and its belief that the most effective way to deploy venture capital is via an independent fund that can leverage the expertise of a professional fund manager and the other investors in the fund.
Gilde Healthcare III will be fully independent of, and complementary to Philips’ existing innovation efforts, including the Philips Healthcare Incubator.
“Over the past years the venturing community has been instrumental in bringing breakthrough healthcare innovations to the market,” said Steve Rusckowski, CEO of Philips Healthcare.
“Through our participation in the Gilde Healthcare III venture capital fund, we are taking another step forward in driving innovation in areas of strategic interest to Philips in healthcare. At the same time we will become even more connected to the venturing community, which is an important element of Philips’ open innovation approach.”
As one of the fund’s anchor investors, Philips has contributed to shaping part of the fund’s innovative scope. Patient-centric healthcare is an emerging approach to healthcare delivery that focuses on the patient experience as well as on improved clinical outcomes.
Within this value space, the Gilde Healthcare III fund will focus on home healthcare solutions, sleep improvement techniques, image-guided interventions/therapies and clinical decision support, with particular emphasis on cardiology, oncology and women’s health.
Philips holds a minority share in the fund and it is being joined by additional institutional financial investors. The Gilde Healthcare III fund has a target size of EUR 200 million (USD 250 million). It will be managed by Gilde Healthcare Partners – a Dutch venture and growth capital firm that currently has more than EUR 300 million under management.
