VC fund Meridian Health Ventures – formerly KHP Ventures – has announced the launch of a new transatlantic fund with total Limited Partner commitments of approximately €44.7 million.
The fund aims to provide HealthTech superscalers with both global and domestic growth opportunities, helping UK innovations scale across the NHS and into the US healthcare market.
Dr Nadine Hachach-Haram, Co-Managing Partner at Meridian Health Ventures, commented: “With this Fund, we want to supercharge the growth of the most promising innovations so they can deliver direct benefits to the NHS’s patients and workforce, as well as the wider UK economy. Through transatlantic collaboration, we are also creating an environment where ambitious founders can scale at pace – both domestically and internationally – bridging the gap between UK NHS and US healthcare systems for a start.”
Originally launched in 2021 as KHP Ventures, Meridian Health Ventures is led by a team with experience as entrepreneurs, investors, operators, regulators, academics, clinicians and industry leaders. The fund’s portfolio includes fast-scaling HealthTech companies such as Doccla, deepc, Patchwork, Tympa Health, Apian, iFAST Diagnostics, PocDoc, Phare Health, 52 North and MediShout.
The firm’s General Partners are Daniel Dickens, Dr Nadine Haram, Tim Irish, and Dr Pooja Sikka.
The firm has also invested in promising MedTech spinouts from leading UK academic institutions including Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial, King’s and Southampton. Notably, 12 NHS clinical entrepreneurs are among the founding teams of companies in the fund’s portfolio.
Collectively, these portfolio companies have deployed their solutions across more than 100 NHS Trusts in the UK, with many also expanding globally. Several are already partnering with major US health systems such as Cedars-Sinai.
Daniel Dickens, Co-Managing Partner at Meridian Health Ventures, said: “As Founders ourselves, we’ve launched this Fund to ensure that the next generation of HealthTech breakthroughs can be scaled in the UK, not just invented here. We’re proud to partner with this group of leading health systems and healthcare investors on both sides of the Atlantic, and of course to work with the driven and talented founding teams in the Fund’s portfolio.”
According to Meridian Health Ventures, scaling domestically remains a longstanding challenge for UK-founded HealthTech companies. Many are forced to relocate to the US for growth opportunities, resulting in lost economic value for the UK and missed chances for the NHS to benefit from homegrown innovation.
Backed by major UK health systems including Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospital, and University College London Hospitals – as well as Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in the US – the new fund supports high-potential HealthTech ventures to thrive both in the UK and internationally. Hartford HealthCare is also set to join the fund imminently, signalling growing momentum on both sides of the Atlantic.
Professor Ian Abbs, Chief Executive Officer at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, noted: “The NHS is facing one of the biggest challenges in its history – how to continue to deliver high-quality care against a backdrop of rising demand, increased patient acuity and pressures on workforce and finance. The NHS is not alone – most developed health systems are grappling with the same fundamental questions.
“This imperative to innovate is why we decided to become a founding institution of KHP Ventures and an anchor Partner in Meridian Health Ventures’ Fund. As a leading NHS organisation, we are committed to harnessing accelerations in new digital and biomedical advances, such as the innovative start-ups that this Fund invests in, to deliver better, faster and fairer healthcare for all.”
Meridian Health Ventures is reportedly the first NHS-anchored and transatlantic venture capital fund, focused on investing in clinical innovators and enabling the adoption of transformative solutions at scale.
James D. Laur, JD, Chief Intellectual Property Officer at Cedars-Sinai and Managing Director of Cedars-Sinai Health Ventures, added: “Our mission at Cedars-Sinai is to provide patients around the world with the best care possible, and we believe that partnering with talented innovators across the globe will help us continue to achieve this. We have worked with the Meridian Health Ventures team in the UK for years and see their mission as deeply aligned with ours. We have been impressed by the quality and depth of the HealthTech Founders in their portfolio, and are excited to build on our collaboration as Partners in the Fund.”
In October 2024, the firm also launched Europe’s first dedicated mental health tech fund – the Innovations in Mental Health (IMH) Fund – with the Wellcome Trust as anchor investor and in partnership with South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Together, the IMH Fund and the new transatlantic fund represent Limited Partner commitments totalling approximately €44.7 million.
Alex Trewby, CEO and Co-founder of Apian, a Meridian Health Ventures portfolio company, said: “Apian’s story started in the NHS, and we’ve been fortunate to grow alongside partners like Meridian Health Ventures and Trusts like Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. What began through the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme has grown into a mission with global reach – from our work with Zipline and Wing to delivering care to patients faster. Meridian’s new transatlantic fund creates a win-win for patients, clinicians and health tech founders like us.”
