VC firm adds healthcare, medical specialist

OneVentures has appointed Dr John Westwater to their healthcare team to drive growth in their healthcare sector portfolio.

Westwater has more than 20 years' experience across finance and medical roles. He was recently the CFO of Australian medical device company Elastagen, which was sold to Allergan in 2018. He spent several months with Allergan as head of research and development.

OneVentures launched a $170 million healthcare fund in late 2016, investing in companies commercialising medical devices, drugs in clinical development, and diagnosis.

He was previously a principal at Phase4 Ventures, a science venture fund within Nomura, Japan's largest investment banking firm.

Westwater is joined by Kelly Constable, who started as a venture partner for OneVentures.

"We are excited to have John and Kelly bring their experience and expertise to OneVentures," said Dr Paul Kelly, OneVentures' managing partner. "Biomedical and Healthcare innovation is moving at a rapid pace and both bring their respective and specific backgrounds to OneVentures as we continue to focus on commercialising Australia's exceptional medical innovations globally, especially as technology and healthcare innovations are integrating at a dramatic rate."

"I am delighted to join the OneVenutres healthcare team and in particular the opportunity to support emerging life science companies on their journeys to becoming Australia's next wave of success stories," said Westwater.