Nine years on, the medical experts have diagnosed what success looks like, with all their portfolio companies still up and running. Now they’ve decided to turn it into an Early Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnership (ESVCLP) fund, enlisting serial founder and former Startmate boss Michal Batko as its part-time venture partner.
Medical Angels was cofounded by emergency clinician and neuroscientist Dr Mian Bi, the creator of Investing for Doctors, and GP Dr Amandeep Hansra, a former principal at deep tech fund Main Sequence Ventures and founder of Creative Careers in Medicine.
Batko, founder of a new AI automation startup Hourglass AI, has joined Medical Angels Venture Fund I with a target value of $40 million. The fund is already live, with $4m committed in just 10 weeks. Batko has been charged with looking after the raise, investor relations for the 1,400-plus doctors backing it, and operations.
“These doctors have done the hard yards for nine years. They see the patients, they read the trials, they back companies they’d put their own name behind,” he said.
“I’m not here to second-guess any of that. I’m here to build the engine around it, so a small, doctor-led fund can punch well above its weight. It’s a support role, and I’m all in with the team.”
Smileyscope, which makes a VR-based digital therapeutic for procedural pain and anxiety in children, is among the Medical Angels investments. Founded by Rhodes Scholar Dr Evelyn Chan, it’s been used in more than 400,000 procedures across four continents. Another is Coviu, the telehealth platform that powered Healthdirect through Covid and now runs more than 300,000 consultations a month, while Clean Slate Clinic, led by Dr Chris Davis, delivers Australia’s first fully-virtual alcohol detox program and has treated more than 3,000 patients.
The $4 million already committed has been drawn from a community of roughly 54,000 Australian doctors across Medical Angels and Investing for Doctors.
Their underlying belief is that Australian healthtech has been capital-starved, relative to its clinical talent. Founders repeatedly experience specialist frictions outside of typical venture models: generalist investors who can’t evaluate a clinical claim, can’t navigate a TGA pathway, and can’t open a door to the hospitals that need the product.
So Medical Angels concluded that the most under-priced edge in venture isn’t deal flow or technical diligence – it’s clinical judgement at the cap table, at scale, with an operating team built to match it.
Enter Batko to get the VC engine purring, while the doctors focus on what they do best.
While it’s a new but familiar challenge, he’s still focused on Hourglass AI “as the day job”.
“My main game is Hourglass AI, where we build automation for Australian businesses. AI is landing in clinics faster than anyone can test it properly,” he said.
“So a fund where the investors are the same doctors deciding what’s actually safe to put in front of a patient? That’s about the most interesting seat you can have. They bring judgement you can’t fake. I bring the operator muscle.”
There was clear appeal in taking on the Medical Angels Venture Fund was what Batko saw as the cleanest thesis in venture.
“The line that got me was simple: the money follows the medicine,” he said.
“Your investors are the same people prescribing the product, and often the patients using it. The alignment is total.” I’ve not seen a cleaner thesis in venture.”
