Advent International: the $109B buyout house quietly building an Indian healthcare empire

Advent International manages $109B globally, runs one of the most active India private-equity franchises — 17 investments and roughly $5.8B deployed since 2009 — and has announced ambitions to put $5–10B to work in India over five years. Here is how it operates.

Founded in 1984 in Boston by Peter Brooke, Advent International describes itself as "one of the largest and most experienced global private equity investors", with more than 300 investment professionals across 14 countries and $109B in assets under management as of 30 June 2026. Its model is operationally intensive: deep sector teams partner with management for long-term value creation, including complex carve-outs such as GE's INNIO and thyssenkrupp Elevator. Across 45 countries it has completed 460 private-equity investments.

Advent works through five chosen sectors: Business & Financial Services, Consumer, Healthcare, Industrial and Technology, spanning more than 30 sub-sectors. In 2019 it raised Advent Tech, its first technology-dedicated fund, and its flagship buyout vehicle GPE X raised $25B in commitments in 2022, hitting its hard cap in under six months — among the largest buyout raises of its era.

India is one of Advent's most deliberate franchises. It opened a Mumbai office in 2009 and has since made 17 investments in the country, deploying roughly $5.8B across buyouts. The standout exit: Bharat Serums & Vaccines, acquired in 2020 and sold to Mankind Pharma for Rs 13,630 crore in July 2024 — featured as a case study on Advent's own homepage. Its current India portfolio spans Suven Pharma, Cohance Life Sciences, Manjushree Technopack, Encora, Eureka Forbes, Crompton Greaves, DFM Foods, KreditBee, Aditya Birla Capital and Yes Bank.

Healthcare has become the signature. Advent has made more than 55 healthcare investments across 17 countries, and India features prominently: Care Hospitals, Felix Pharma, Apollo 24/7 and, in September 2026, a Rs 3,150 crore acquisition of a 24.9% stake in Yatharth Hospitals. In February 2024 the firm told the Economic Times it aimed to deploy $5–10B in India over the next five years, citing GDP growth, demographics and low financial penetration.

India is led by Shweta Jalan, Managing Partner, India, based in Mumbai, who joined Advent in 2009 after ICICI Venture. Globally the executive committee is co-chaired by James Brocklebank and David Mussafer.

Why it matters for founders

Advent is not a venture fund — it buys established companies — but its India playbook is instructive. Its healthcare roll-up (Bharat Serums, Yatharth, Care) shows how a founder with a scaled, profitable business can get a world-class exit, and its $5–10B India ambition means more growth-stage Indian companies will sit on its radar in the coming years.