Impact investment firm Omnivore is considering another deal in animal health, bioinformatics, precision fermentation and materials science, a senior official said.
The company plans to end four to six deals this year, two of which will be in the life sciences field. “I would love to do a life science protocol related to animal science. It’s a mature sector that has a huge challenge. The industry has strong economics and good profits,” said Mark Kahn, managing partner at Omnivore.
The company also plans to withdraw from its second fund this year. Omnivore is currently negotiating with some of its founders of its portfolio companies and bankers to develop an exit strategy. “This year, we hope to try to restore a good amount of capital,” said Abhilash Sethi, the company’s investment director.
Omnivore focuses on Agritech, FoodTech and climate smart investments. The company has been founded in Kahn and Jinesh Shah since 2010. Since then, Omnivore has funded more than 40 companies and currently manages $295 million in two active funds.
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In FY25, the company made nine investments, four of which were new in companies such as SID’s Farm, Scimplify, Cornext and two O Capital. The rest are subsequent investments.
At present, the company has turned its attention to expanding the network of deep science startups and deepening its investment pipeline.
As of now, several startups in the Shenzhen Science field have spent several years incubating in government-operated accelerators such as the Cellular and Molecular Platform Center (C-camp) (C-camp), the Biotech Industry Research Assistance Committee (BIRAC), the Bengaluru Biostart Centre, Pune Center, Pune Center, Pune Center in Pune and Ikp Wellignal Park and Hyderabad.
Get up and run
These places allow startups to access non-debt capital, such as research grants, to build viable products and find ways to monetize. When these startups began to seek to raise funds, they had been around for three to five years.
“When you invest, you’re working hard on real things, real business traction, real pilots, real IP, real IP,” Kahn said.
However, private capital is still missing. Although the industry raised $1.9 billion between 2020 and 2024, it is a nonprofit for the biotech leader and the New York DeepTech fund Indiebio, according to a shared report by Omnivore. Even so, that’s not enough, as the industry is still catching up in the capital environment.
Kahn said: “What is missing now is a very, very early person.
Biopharma and medical biotech startups have been the main recipients of funding over the past five years, the report said. Generalist funds see a lot of participation, indicating that the space is seeing growing interest from venture capitalists who have never invested before.
However, the field of deep science needs a meaningful and consistent in-depth investment in space. To do this, several things need to happen.
One is that global venture capital must surpass the United States and Israel, where the field of life sciences is strong. “We need to get India into the global life science radar,” Kahn said.
Biotechnology systems in India
Second, the industry needs to see a huge exit activity to accelerate investment in venture capital globally and in India. “When people see this, it will unlock a lot of capital in the industry and accelerate the capital’s capital. Now, the educational part of the story.”
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That’s why Omnivore teamed up with Nucleate and Indiebio to launch Biowave, an annual event to accelerate investment and innovation in the Indian biotech ecosystem.
“I think a significant capital can be released through consciousness just by consciousness,” Kahn said, stressing that he hopes that throughout the event, the deep science field will eventually see more growth phase funds than seeds.
According to the joint report, the industry has only 61 rounds – rounds A, 34 rounds B, and only 13 between 2020 and 2024.
