Eight Roads has led a $6m funding round for Ashish Life Science, an export focussed veterinary pharmaceuticals company, alongside Eight Roads' associated fund Anterra Capital. This is Ashish Life Science's first round of external funding.

Ashish Life Science was founded by first generation entrepreneur Raujesh Agarrwal in 2002. He was inspired to set up a multi-formulations facility near Mumbai becuase of the lack of Indian companies supplying veterinary products to the export markets. Since then, the company has built a 100+ product portfolio, established a presence in over 50 countries and now also has a manufacturing infrastructure to produce injectable drugs. With this funding the company is looking to expand into the regulated markets such as Europe, Australia and South Africa, after recently becoming the first veterinary pharmaceuticals company in the country to receive an EU GMP approval for its facility.

“With the Series A funding, we are focussing on deepening our presence in the semi regulated markets and tapping into the veterinary generics segment in the regulated markets. We are delighted to partner with Eight Roads Ventures and Anterra Capital as we enter this next phase in the company’s journey” said Raujesh Agarrwal, Managing Director, Ashish Life Science.

Prem Pavoor commented: “We are excited to partner with Raujesh Agarrwal to realise our shared vision of building a leader in the global generic animal pharmaceuticals industry. We believe this segment is at the same inflexion point for generic penetration as the human pharmaceutical industry in the early 2000s. Indian companies are very well positioned to capture this emerging opportunity given the country’s strengths in generic product development and manufacture. We look forward to helping Ashish Life Science in continuing to cement its leadership position in this next phase of growth.”