Investor Focus: Eka Ventures

In this Investor Focus, Camilla Dolan, General Partner at Eka Ventures, explains the venture capital firm’s early-stage backing strategy and how international growth is helping portfolio companies navigate NHS procurement challenges.

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Eka Ventures is a UK-based early-stage venture capital (VC) firm, which is focused on backing innovative companies at pre-seed and seed stage. Recently, the firm completed the final close of its second fund, raising £80 million to invest in around 30 early-stage companies tackling challenges across health, wellbeing and sustainability.  

The raise follows a string of investments into impact-driven businesses, which typically range from £750,000 to £3 million. Companies from Eka Ventures’ portfolio include DigitalHealth.London alumni Flok Health and Isla Health, as well as post-natal healthcare solution, Hesta Health, which was co-founded by Accelerating FemTech alumnus Dr Sujitha Selvarajah.  

In this Investor Spotlight, General Partner Camilla Dolan explains why Eka Ventures is supporting companies from their earliest stages through growth, despite perceived risks, and how this sustained early support is unlocking long-term value. She also draws on portfolio insights to highlight the role of international expansion in helping portfolio companies to navigate complex procurement barriers within the NHS. 

Focus on three consumer-led market trends

Eka Ventures’ portfolio aligns with three key market trends, which are closely aligned to key policies, including the 10 Year Heath Plan for England and Greener NHS. These include: 

1. Life: companies enabling a more accessible and affordable healthier lifestyle, with products focusing on the determinants of health, including physical and mental wellbeing, education, financial inclusion, consumer justice and AI safety.  
2. Health: companies supporting the shift from sickness to prevention, with products including earlier stage diagnostics, new treatment pathways and technology to improve care for people living with chronic health conditions. 
3. Sustainability: technology that can reshape the largest consumer industries to be resource efficient and decarbonised. 

Tapping into early-stage growth 

Eka Ventures recognises that high-potential innovation for life, health and sustainability can often hindered by misalignment between investment and procurement timelines. This is particularly challenging for early-stage innovators entering the NHS.  

At present, start-ups often face lengthy sales cycles, unclear pathways to adoption and uncertainty over whether contracts will extend beyond annual funding cycles. This makes it difficult for early-stage companies to build predictable revenue. 

[Start-ups] all want to scale in the UK. They all start with the aim of improving the UK healthcare system. But often they hit procurement roadblocks, even though they’ve got very strong efficacy and health economic data in the UK.

Venture capital thrives on scalable growth models, so UK startups operating within the NHS alone can find it harder to secure funding compared to their international peers. Eka Ventures aims to plug this gap, specifically selecting early-stage companies through growth.  

“There is a lot of budget, a lot of spend within the UK, and a huge amount of opportunity for that to go towards scaling up UK companies, if targeted effectively.” 

Lessons from accelerating UK-born innovation internationally

Eka Ventures’ portfolio is also consistently focused on improving access, driving efficiency and enhancing outcomes across rapidly growing markets, making its companies well‑positioned to scale globally.  

Dolan highlights that many companies in Eka’s portfolio find it easier to secure customers abroad, particularly in the United States, where pathways to market can be clearer and faster. 

Healthcare startups based in the US can often scale more rapidly due to more established purchasing mechanisms. This enables them to demonstrate growth earlier, making them more attractive to investors and better positioned for global expansion. 

Streamlined procurement key for unlocking consistent investment 

Crucially, a more supportive procurement environment would likely attract increased venture capital into the sector, creating a positive cycle: more investment leads to more innovation, stronger companies, economic growth and ultimately better outcomes for patients. 

In response to this, the recently launched London Life Sciences Strategy seeks to strengthen how innovation is delivered and commissioned across the capital, improving the routes through which new innovations are implemented. This more coordinated approach aims to draw in greater investment while making it easier for high-potential innovations to be adopted, funded and expanded within the UK. 

For investors like Eka Ventures, the message is clear: the UK already has many of the ingredients needed for success, a vibrant startup ecosystem, and a globally respected healthcare system. However, without reforms to how innovation is procured, there is a risk that these advantages are not fully realised. 

Learn more about Eka Venures by visiting their website and connecting on LinkedIn. 

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