* Braidwell generated 28% gross return in 2025

* Braidwell's investments include Guardant Health ( GH ),

Alphatec ( ATEC ), and Caris Life Sciences ( CAI )

* Firm launched in 2022 by Alex Karnal and Brian Kreiter,

raising $3.5 billion

By Anirban Sen

NEW YORK, March 11 (Reuters) - Braidwell, a

healthcare-focused hedge fund that was launched by former

Deerfield Management executive Alex Karnal and former

Bridgewater Associates COO Brian Kreiter, is looking to double

down on its bets on AI-focused biopharmaceutical companies this

year, after posting a robust 28% return last year.

The Stamford, Connecticut-based firm, which has made AI a

centerpiece of its investment strategy, was among a handful of

big hedge fund launches following the COVID-19 pandemic, raising

$3.5 billion in early 2022. Since then, the hedge fund has

deployed more than $1 billion to back several biotechnology,

pharmaceutical, and medical device companies, Braidwell said in

a recent letter to investors seen by Reuters.

Cancer testing firm Guardant Health ( GH ), medical device maker

Alphatec ( ATEC ), and molecular diagnostics company Caris Life

Sciences ( CAI ) were among its big winners last year, Karnal

and Kreiter said in the letter. At the end of the December

quarter, the Braidwell Partners Fund had roughly $3.1 billion of

assets under management.

Braidwell operates across three main areas. Its flagship

Braidwell Partners Fund invests in public company stocks and

bonds, while its private credit arm Braidwell Credit provides

direct loans to healthcare companies. It also operates an

incubator for early-stage healthcare ventures called Braidwell

Labs.

"We expect 2026 to show some incredible opportunities at the

intersection of AI and Bio," said Kreiter. "You will likely see

us build or back both AI-enabled medicine companies as well as

companies that are developing platforms and tools that will be

used by medicine makers."

The hedge fund reported a 49.5% jump in total gross performance

during the 2023-2025 period, according to Braidwell. Its

flagship fund rose 28% on a gross basis and 21% on a net basis

last year, roughly in line with broader life sciences indices,

which on average rose between 27% and 35% last year. Braidwell's

performance was largely boosted by the fund's bets on

non-therapeutic ventures.

Karnal, who currently serves as Braidwell's chief investment

officer, spent about 16 years at Deerfield, a healthcare-focused

investment firm. Karnal has also co-founded a nonprofit called

the Institute for Life Changing Medicines with gene-therapy

pioneer James Wilson.

Kreiter served as an assistant to the Mayor of Chicago

before a nearly 13-year stint at hedge fund giant Bridgewater.

IDEA FROM PANDEMIC YEARS

Karnal and Kreiter have been building their investment platform

since 2022, aiming to blend traditional Wall Street-style

investing with medical science and AI.

The firm's roughly 40-person team comprises molecular

biologists, biostatisticians, commercial analysts, AI engineers,

and portfolio managers. Karnal and Kreiter, who had known each

other for several years, developed the idea of launching

Braidwell in earnest during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kreiter, who at the time was still at Bridgewater, had started

to develop an early natural-language AI model, having put

together a team of engineers who had helped build and develop

IBM's Watson computer system. The two founders started to

discuss ideas on potential healthcare solutions that could be

built for the larger population that was attempting to emerge

from the pandemic.

One of their early software products was used by the NFL to

help run the Super Bowl that year. The NFL did not return a

request for comment.

"We decided to build a company from scratch in our labs to

support emerging venture-stage companies - and then we also

wanted to buy the stock of public companies, and give loans to

big, established companies because our view is that in most

areas of investing that type of activity is very siloed," Karnal

said in an interview.