Ask an Angel: Dr Amandeep Hansra, Australian Medical Angels

Australian Medical Angels (AMA) is a national syndicate helping doctors and health practitioners break into the investment world.

Founded by Dr Amandeep Hansra and Dr Bi Mian, AMA, which LaunchVic gave $300,000 to set up in Victoria in November 2021, has made 28 investments and recruited over 900 medical practitioners to its syndicate.

We sat down with Dr Hansra to hear more about AMA’s journey to date, and the benefits of sector-specific angel groups for startups.

What do you do and why are you passionate about it?

As an investor, I look for exciting healthcare startups that I think are going to solve some of the big challenges facing the health care sector.

As a practicing clinician, I am faced daily with difficult problems that need solving, so that we can continue to provide access to great quality healthcare to all.

I am passionate about this space as I have been working in it for nearly 20 years and am continuously in awe of the dedication and passion I see in founders who choose to work in this sector.

It gives me great hope that we will make our healthcare system sustainable through the use of new tech solutions.

What was your path to VC as a medical doctor?

I was always a systems thinker, even though I love seeing patients, I always wanted to solve the big complex challenging problems.

This led me to a career in the corporate part of healthcare where I learned about the business of healthcare and developed leadership and management skills. I went on to do a Global EMBA and also started to dabble in the startup world. After founding a couple of companies, myself, I felt the desire to give back to the startup sector by helping other founders.

The biggest challenge founders faced was funding. There were not many VCs in the Australian market who understood health deeply. That’s when my cofounder Dr Bi Mian and I decided to start Australian Medical Angels, taking doctors with money to invest and founders who needed not just the money, but the strategic support of health experts.

Why should medical practitioners consider investing directly in healthcare technology?

Medical practitioners are perfectly placed to identify what technologies in healthcare are likely to succeed. They are often the users of the technology or if not, are the gatekeepers. Having them involved early as investors, allows them to provide early strategic support as well as coming on as early adopters and first customers.

The medical practitioners are also key influencers in the health systems or the buyers that founders are looking to sell to. Our investors love getting involved and find it as something fun and interesting to do alongside their clinical work.

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Are there any particular areas Australian Medical Angels are looking to invest in right now?

There are so many problems still in the health system that even some of the simplest technology solutions still get us excited. We tend not to follow too many of the hype tech trends and look for a solution that really addresses a problem for the clinician, patient or other health system stakeholder.

We are seeing lots of potential for AI to assist with automating some of the more mundane tasks that clinicians spend too much time doing and love anything to do with data. We focus on startups that have really nailed the business model and have found a payor for their solution.

And finally, what makes a great pitch?

A great pitch must be simple to understand, without too much medical or scientific jargon, if it’s hard to make an investor understand what you do, it will be even harder for your end customer to understand.

We love pitches that articulate the problem really well and have evidence backing up assumptions.

We like data, so love the pitches where founders have spoken to lots of customers or other key stakeholders in the system.