5 Questions with Venture Investors Health Fund’s David Arnstein

For more than four decades, Venture Investors Health Fund has been a cornerstone of Midwest healthcare innovation, backing transformative companies long before the region was on most venture radars. Our partnership builds on that legacy, bringing together Venture Investors Health Fund”s deep roots and early-stage healthcare expertise in the region with NVNG’s platform for long-term capital, connectivity, and ecosystem impact. We had the chance to hear from David Arnstein, Partner and CFO, to share more about the firm and why their team is excited to work with NVNG’s community.

Q: Can you tell us about Venture Investors Health Fund’s  origin story and superpowers?

Venture Investors Health Fund was founded in 1982 and is focused primarily on commercializing early-stage innovations developed in the world-class research universities of the U.S. Midwest. The Venture Investors team identified that it had an edge in the healthcare domain and tilted its strategy to expand healthcare investments as a share of its portfolio in subsequent vintages. Since 2018, Venture Investors has embraced an exclusive focus on healthcare and strengthened its team and processes to execute on this strategy.

Throughout our history of seven VC funds, we have invested in more than 85 companies — approximately half of which have been university ecosystem spinouts — and have exited eleven healthcare companies with upfront and available milestone payments at valuations between $250M and $2.5B. We are dedicated to sourcing innovation, creating value, and transforming lives.

We strive to be the hardest-working investor in the room. We embrace the role of the early-stage investor and are active from inception to exit. And we are laser-focused on building great management teams.

Q: Why are Venture Investors Health Fund and NVNG a good fit/what makes you excited to work together?

NVNG selects a group of venture funds to deliver competitive financial returns while also impacting the Wisconsin ecosystem. That criteria is a great fit for the partnership with Venture Investors Health Fund. We strive to deliver strong financial returns, and we have always had a strong impact on Wisconsin. We are excited to leverage the strategic objectives of the NVNG investor base and collaborate to build world-class healthcare companies in Wisconsin. On Wisconsin!

Q: What is your take on the Midwest/WI Venture Ecosystem and how Venture Investors Health Fund fits into that map?

 The Midwest is a hotbed of innovation. The Midwest enjoys numerous competitive advantages that make the region a fertile environment for sourcing cutting-edge healthcare innovation. These advantages include: several of the nation’s leading university ecosystems; the presence of the world’s leading healthcare companies; a growing number of experienced healthcare entrepreneurs; and a scarcity of venture capital funding that enables Venture Investors Health fund to source differentiated deal flow and identify game-changing innovations that are off the radar screens of most VCs. Wisconsin has many regional assets, including the Medical College of Wisconsin, Versiti, and UW-Madison, that all contribute to innovation, leading to excellent investment opportunities.

Q: In your work at Venture Investors Health Fund, what are you most proud of?

I am most proud of the people that I get to work with daily, and the entrepreneurs and founders that we invest in. At the end of the day, we invest in people, and our best outcomes are from investing in the strongest founders and management teams.

Q: What are you most excited for as you look at the state of the spaces you invest in?

We believe the transformation of healthcare will be based on technologies and solutions that enable more precise, personalized, and patient empowering care. We’re in a golden era where science, data, and computing converge, and breakthrough solutions will be discovered. Unlike many sectors, healthcare demand doesn’t disappear in downturns—it intensifies. That creates durable markets for innovation and long-term value creation.