U.S. fund MPM Capital plans India entry

MUMBAI (Reuters) - MPM Capital, a U.S.-based life sciences venture fund, plans to invest in one or two local firms in the next six months marking its India entry, its general partner said on Wednesday.

With more than $2.5 billion committed capital under management, MPM Capital will tap its $550 million Bioventures fund for the India investment, William Greene told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar.

"We are beginning to focus on India and China," Greene said. "In the next months, I would like to see 1-2 investments in India ... about $20 million is the kind of byte size we are looking at."

MPM would take anywhere between 10-40 percent stakes in the firms and was open to a broad spectrum of life sciences companies, especially those offering discovery outsourcing and contract research and manufacturing services, he said.

"Services in general are pretty interesting. Medical devices sector could be very interesting in the longer term."

MPM was also open to investing in research and development companies working on developing new molecules, he added.

"My enthusiasm for the opportunity in India is quite big."

Investments in lifesciences sector in India were low, and he saw a large potential here, he added.

Healthcare and life sciences accounted for about 4.6 percent of the $9 billion investments from venture capital and private equity in India in Jan-Sept, said Arun Natarajan, chief executive officer at Venture Intelligence, a private equity deals tracker.