ATLANTA–(BUSINESS WIRE)–NRD Capital Management, LLC, an Atlanta-based private equity firm that specializes in franchised and multi-location business investments, through its affiliate NRD Healthcare Solutions, today announced a significant growth capital investment in New York City-based FundRx. The investment is NRD’s first healthcare-focused company and the second investment made from NRD’s recently closed second fund, NRD Partners II L.P. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
FundRx is a venture capital platform that builds and invests in the next-generation of healthcare and life sciences startups. Its community of 2500+ members – themselves industry executives, serial entrepreneurs, physicians and scientists – contribute their capital, time, and expertise to the FundRx portfolio, providing exceptional hands-on support and guidance to nurture great companies. FundRx takes a scientific approach to investing, working with a distributed network of experts to peer-review prospective startups, and is a pioneer in venture capital technology – with a dedicated engineering organization enabling advanced analytics and screening of investments. The company is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Chicago and San Francisco.
“FundRx aligns perfectly with our investment strategy to support differentiated platforms with long-term growth potential and is an ideal partner for NRD,” said Aziz Hashim, Managing Partner of NRD. “The emerging healthcare and life sciences space is both highly-attractive and incredibly complex, which is why an investment in FundRx, and the opportunity to work with its innovative leadership team, is so appealing to NRD and our LPs – many of whom have also co-invested in the firm themselves.”
Since its inception, FundRx has funded 15 startups in the healthcare and life sciences sub-verticals including EpiBone, Buoy Health, Meissa Vaccines, SafeRide Health, SoundBite Medical, NeuroOne and Epicured. The firm was founded in 2015 by Zeshan Muhammedi, Gurdane Bhutani and Justin Martin.
“What differentiates NRD in the private equity world is their operator-first mentality,” said Zeshan Muhammedi, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of FundRx. “NRD doesn’t view itself as solely a capital provider, but a true strategic partner whose greatest strengths go far beyond the value of their checkbook. As operator-minded investors ourselves, we are uniquely aligned with their approach to investing and partnering with their portfolio companies, which is why we chose them as our private equity partner.”
As part of the transaction agreement, NRD will gain exclusive access to investment opportunities and provide a potential exit strategy for companies in FundRx’s portfolio. NRD will also partner with FundRx to leverage its Peer Review Council to target and evaluate investment opportunities within the healthcare IT and services sectors, focusing on companies that have franchisable concepts and are in need of growth capital.
Hashim concluded: “When we closed our second fund back in July, we announced our intent to enter the growing healthcare vertical. Less than three months later, we are closing a significant investment in a venture capital firm that not only adds healthcare and life sciences to the NRD portfolio, but also provides us with the core foundation of our due diligence process for evaluating future prospects in this sector. We believe this collaboration between NRD and FundRx will fill a void that has long existed in healthcare and life sciences, and expect this partnership to act as the catalyst for NRD’s overall strategy in the sector moving forward.”
NRD focuses on companies specializing in franchised and multi-location business models, with a core strategy of investing in brands that offer superior products/services and compelling unit economics, and maximizing their potential through the franchise business model.
About NRD Capital
NRD Capital Management, LLC, founded by Aziz Hashim, invests in brands that offer superior products or services and compelling unit-level economics in order to help them strategically grow through the power of franchising. The fund invests in small to medium-sized franchisors, infusing capital and applying operating expertise to grow brands. NRD has thus far acquired two US-based multi-location franchise brands, Frisch’s Big Boy and Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, which have generated $400+million in annual system revenues from 250 locations in 15 states. The fund has also made a significant growth capital investment in FundRx, an early stage venture capital firm focused on healthcare and life sciences with a portfolio of 15 startup companies. Both brands and the venture capital firm are currently in NRD’s portfolio. For more information please visit www.nrdcapital.com.
