Carlyle Expands Device Venture Finance Group

When most industry people hear of The Carlyle Group, they think of it exclusively as a buyout group, and indeed leveraged buyouts are an important part of the global private equity firm’s business. But many are surprised to learn that Carlyle has a venture and growth capital operation that maintains a strong commitment to investing in the medical device sector. In fact, Carlyle recently announced that it is expanding its health care venture operations to the West Coast—they had previously been based in New York and Washington, DC—with the opening of a San Francisco office to be closer to the hub of early-stage medical technology activities in the Bay area. Carlyle is currently investing in devices out of its new $605 million venture and growth fund.

"Medical device investing is the core of what we do in health care venture capital at Carlyle," says Ryan M. Schwarz, managing director and head of the firm’s venture and...