Dr Amit Kakar joins MedGenome Board of Directors

Bengaluru: MedGenome has announced the appointment of Dr Amit Kakar MD, from Novo Holdings to its Board of Directors. This announcement comes on the heels of MedGenome’s $50 million funding round led by Novo Holdings in August 2022.

Dr Kakar is Senior Partner, Head of Novo Holdings Asia, and a healthcare professional with over 30 years of experience across key verticals. His diverse experience also encompasses investing, operational and management roles across health-tech companies. He is currently part of the Board of Directors of Singapore-based life science company, ESCO, telemedicine portal – Doctor Anywhere and leading health tech firm Qure.ai.

As a Senior Partner, Dr. Kakar’s expertise will help accelerate MedGenome’s expansion plans.

In his comments, Dr. Amit Kakar said, “MedGenome’s journey in the field of genomics has been very impressive. The company’s mission to transform the future of personalized healthcare making genetic testing affordable and accessible across the different strata of society and creating awareness among the clinician community is in line with Novo’s investment strategy. I am looking forward to working closely with the team and my fellow board members on this next exciting phase of MedGenome’s expansion journey.”

The company has also appointed Navjeewan Khosla, Principal, Novo Holdings as Board Observer.

In his comments, Navjeewan Khosla said, “We are very excited to partner with the MedGenome team. We believe in their vision to leverage the power of genomics for better management of inherited disorders. Personalised healthcare can now be made accessible and affordable to all. We are in perfect agreement with MedGenome’s expansion strategy, and I look forward to working together to achieve new heights of success for all of us.”

“In embarking on the next phase of our journey, we are delighted to have Dr Amit and Navjeewan on board. Their vast industry knowledge and experience will be of significant support to take MedGenome to newer heights as well as to foray into new geographical markets. Together we can scale-up access and affordability to state-of-the-art genomic testing.” said Mahesh Pratapneni, Co-founder and Group CEO of MedGenome.

“MedGenome’s mission to expand the global genomic dataset to aid in the development of more inclusive and equitable research & drug discovery is critical to the future of global healthcare. Dr. Amit’s experience will help us advance our global expansion plans.” said Dr. Felix Olale, Chairman of MedGenome’s Board of Directors, and Global Co-Lead for Healthcare Investments at LeapFrog Investments.

Previously, Dr. Amit served as Head of M&A and Business Development at Everlife Asia in Singapore, was Head of Healthcare Investments at Avenue Capital Group and served in several senior leadership roles at GE Healthcare. As a member of the board of directors, he joins Neeraj Bhargava of Zodius Capital, Tejeshwi Sharma of Sequoia Capital, Sam Santhosh, the founder, Felix Olale from LeapFrog, as well as Mahesh Pratapneni, the co-founder and chief executive officer of MedGenome.

In addition to expanding its product offerings, MedGenome intends to enhance the reach of its key diagnostic services, including reproductive and oncology, as well as to expand its bioinformatics and SaaS capabilities.