Ruchita
Sinha

Ruchita leads healthcare investing at AV8 and has spent her professional career in the healthcare industry as a scientist, operator, investor and advisor to healthcare and life science startups.

Prior to AV8, Ruchita was the head of digital health investing at Sanofi Ventures where she created the strategy and built a portfolio of investments including Inozyme, (NASDAQ: INZY), Omada Health, Evidation Health, Curisium (Acq. Health Verity), Click Therapeutics, Aetion, Science 37 and Common Sensing. Earlier, Ruchita was at GE Ventures, where she led a range of initiatives including equity investments, partnerships, and portfolio management. She executed deals that delivered millions in upside for GE Healthcare businesses.

Ruchita started her career as a scientist at Maxygen and also spent time at Pfizer’s Strategy & BD group and as a management consultant with LEK Consulting. She was nominated to the Global Corporate Venturing Forum Powerlist in 2018 and 2019 and also serves on the advisory board of the BIO Investor Forum.

She holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, MS in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and BS in Biochemistry from Mount Holyoke College.

What drives you to want to help entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs bring a rare combination innovative thinking, business acumen, and tenacity. Over the years, I have realized that they best way to support them in this journey is to enable them in any way I can and then get out of their way.

What’s an important professional lesson you’ve learned?

Everything you do in your professional career is about people – connecting with people, inspiring people, learning from people, and differing from people. It is the most important skill I use and yet something that was never taught in school!

Most fun thing you’ve built?

Not sure if most people would think of this as fun but I had a ball doing it. In grad school, I built virus particles that had the envelope of an Ebola virus but the genome of a retrovirus. I was trying to study the entry and transmission of an Ebola virus in a somewhat safe manner.

What’s something people don’t realize about venture capital

How little diversity there still is in this industry.

What’s something—big or small—that you’re really good at?

Asking the right questions – comes in handy in extracting lies and secrets out of my pre-teens!