In this edition of Spotlight on Impact, we focus on the impact theme of Healthcare – one of the most fundamental human needs and, as it turns out, one of the more complex impact investment landscapes. We explore how Anthos thinks about the opportunities that provide exposure to this impact theme and why emerging markets are our primary frontier, and what it takes to find companies where commercial success and positive health outcomes genuinely reinforce one another.
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Our overarching mission in Healthcare is to address the unmet needs of people, communities, and the planet by providing access to essential products and services that are affordable and of good quality and which contribute to positive social and environmental impact at scale.
Healthcare: Where to Start?
Healthcare is a vast and heterogeneous sector. At its broadest, we think about impact investment opportunities across four dimensions: access, affordability, quality, and innovation. In emerging markets - our primary focus - the most pressing gaps cluster around the first two, though digital technology is increasingly reshaping how care is delivered and medicine is distributed.
The sector spans a wide range of sub-verticals: pharmaceutical distribution; diagnostics and diagnostics-enabled care; hospital infrastructure and primary care networks; digital health and health technology (including telemedicine, AI-assisted clinical assessment, and electronic health records), along with maternal and child health, elder care, and community health worker models. The most compelling impact opportunities tend to sit at the intersection of high unmet need and scalable commercial models – where serving more patients or more rural pharmacies is not a cost of doing good, but the engine of the business itself. Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and parts of Latin America represent the regions where gaps are widest and the opportunity for private capital is most acute.
Our investments align with SDG 3 sub-goals: 3.1 & 3.2 (maternal and child health); 3.3 & 3.4 (communicable and non-communicable diseases, mental health); and 3.8 & 3.9 (access to medicines, R&D, and affordable healthcare facilities).
Why Investing in Healthcare Matters
The World Health Organisation recognises access to healthcare as a fundamental human right. Yet the UN's 2024 SDG Report confirms the world is not on track to achieve SDG 3. 25 million children missed life-saving vaccines in 2022. Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia are responsible for 87% of global maternal deaths. Deaths from tuberculosis and neglected tropical diseases are rising. And in 2024, governments in low-income countries spent just $17 per capita on health – less than a third of the $60 minimum needed to deliver essential services.
Private capital, directed with discipline, has a significant role to play. Growing middle classes, expanding health insurance coverage, and increasing mobile connectivity are creating fertile ground for scalable, commercially viable health businesses that can generate strong returns while delivering meaningful impact.
What Impact looks like in Healthcare
Investments in better health outcomes carry economic multipliers beyond the clinical setting. When healthcare access improves, workforce participation rises, productive days lost to illness decline, and household expenditure shifts toward savings, education and consumption – all feeding broader economic growth. We seek measurable improvements across SDG 3: improved immunisation rates; reduced deaths from infectious and non-communicable diseases; stronger maternal and child outcomes; and expanded access to essential medicines and quality primary care. Critically, we look for impact at scale – companies whose model makes growing their reach and growing their revenues the same thing.
Our Theory of Change
Capital is deployed into funds and companies that improve access to, affordability of, and quality of healthcare – particularly for underserved and base-of-pyramid populations. Those companies generate outputs: medicines distributed, patients treated, clinics opened, pharmacies connected, caregivers trained – producing outcomes of lower preventable mortality, improved chronic disease management, greater economic participation, and ultimately meaningful progress toward SDG 3.
How This Works in Practice at Anthos
One way we place this theory to work is through our allocation to Asia Impact Investment Fund II (AIIF II), managed by UOB Venture Management (UOBVM). AIIF II invests in early-to-expansion stage companies across Southeast Asia and China serving base-of-pyramid populations. Healthcare is the largest sector allocation – nearly 20% of invested capital – across three companies: EverLife Healthcare (China), Tianyu Infinity Wellness Technology (China), and Buymed (Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand). [...]
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Anthos Fund & Asset Management
Anthos Fund & Asset Management
