According to a report by an association of venture capitalists, private equity and venture capital firms are bullish on Indian healthcare and life science companies. Over the last five years companies in the sector have received investments of over $2 billion with the hospital chains,diagnostic services, medical devices and wellness products emerging as the new areas of focus.

The report is based on a survey which shows that investors are especially keen on sectors such as diagnostic services, medical devices or equipment, hospital chains and wellness products and services. According to the report fund managers expect healthcare and life science firms to get at least 10 per cent of the new investments being raised for India.

The report says that venture capital firms invested $117 million in India through 27 deals to the six month ending June 2009 as against $413 million in H1 2008 which were invested in 67 deals.

Information Technology and IT-Enabled Services (IT & ITeS) companies continue remain the most attractive to capital investors with 14 investments worth about $75 million in 6 months.

IT & ITeS sector accounted for 63 per cent of the investments in value terms comprising over half of the total number of deals concluded over the first 6 months of this year, with online services companies being the favourite within the sector. Online services account for around 57 per cent of the investments (by volume) within the industry during H1 2009.