Lilly invests $30M in new fund for minority health-care startups

Eli Lilly and Co. is investing $30 million in a new venture fund for minority-owned, early-stage health care companies as part of its ongoing racial justice efforts.

The Indianapolis-based drugmaker said Friday that the fund is “well on its way” to raising $100 million, and the company expects traditional investors to follow its lead in helping minority and “historically under-represented” business owners.

The fund, called Unseen Capital Health Fund LP, is based in New York. It is designed to identify, fund and support minority-owned health companies and those helping marginalized communities.

Lilly said people from the African American and other minority communities are frequently “unseen” by the U.S. health care system and are often not a large part of clinical trials of new drugs.

The next wave of investors in this fund is most likely to be big institutional investors,” said Josh Smiley, Lilly’s chief financial officer. Institutional investors include pension funds, hedge funds, endowments and mutual funds.

Smiley said the fund is likely “the first of its kind” in targeting minority-owned health startup companies.

“If another one was out there, we would probably have invested in it instead,” he told IBJ.

Last year, Lilly and its foundation pledged $25 million and 25,000 employee volunteer service hours over five years to ease the burden of racial injustice and its effects on local and national communities of color.

Lilly’s pledge came amid local protests over the shooting death of a black man, Dreasjon Reed, by an Indianapolis police officer and the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The commitments were made in conjunction with the Indy Day of Solidarity-We Stand Together.