HBF sets up $25m corporate venture fund to back health-tech startups
Australia’s second-largest member-based insurer is expanding its portfolio to invest in health tech startups. And it’s confident it can succeed where other corporate VCs failed.
ANZ killed 1835i. Westpac wound down Reinventure. Not-for-profit health insurer HBF Health reckons it knows why corporate venture capital keeps failing — and why it won’t.
Australia’s second-largest member-based health insurer has launched a $25 million venture fund to back health-tech startups. But unlike the banks and their corporate venture funds that came before it, HBF says it’s not chasing returns.
“The lens for the venture fund is more about our members and health outcomes, rather than a pure financial play”, HBF chief executive Lachlan Henderson told Capital Brief.
“It’s not quite like some others who are involved in this space where it’s a purely finance outcome, and they may pull the plug early based on that. We are a long term player”.
