Anita Watkins

Anita Watkins is Managing Director of Rex Health Ventures, the corporate venture fund of UNC Health. Rex Health Ventures was established by UNC REX Healthcare in 2012 and now operates as the early-stage investment fund for UNC Health System, backing emerging healthcare companies and helping them connect with clinical and operational expertise across UNC REX and UNC Health.

Watkins began corporate venture investing in 2012 after a two-decade career in government affairs. Her earlier roles included work in state government at the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, local-government advocacy at the North Carolina League of Municipalities, and higher education as Vice President of Government Relations for the UNC System. Cary Magazine reported in 2018 that she had reviewed about 700 companies, conducted deep diligence on more than 100, and led Rex Health Ventures into 12 startup investments during her first six years in the role.

Her education includes a degree from North Carolina State University and both a law degree and a master’s degree from the University of North Carolina. She has also been active in North Carolina’s entrepreneurship and civic ecosystem, including service with the Council for Entrepreneurial Development, Innovate Raleigh, the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, the NCSU Chancellor’s Innovation Fund, and NC State’s ASSIST engineering center. Eisenhower Fellowships named her a 2020 USA Fellow while she was Director of Strategic Innovation at UNC REX / Rex Health Ventures.

• Rex Health Ventures describes itself as an “entrepreneur-friendly strategic investor” focused on speeding access to healthcare products and services that improve patient care.
• The firm invests in emerging companies where there is strategic fit with UNC Health / UNC REX and where the health system can be a value-add partner through clinicians, subject-matter experts, workflow insight, and potential adoption pathways.
• Published criteria reported at launch included seed and early-stage opportunities, including pre-revenue companies that have at least developed a prototype or beta product.
• Sector criteria include healthcare IT, healthcare services, medical devices, and biopharma technologies; Watkins said at LSI USA ’24: “We invest across the entire healthcare spectrum, particularly love med tech.”
• In medtech, Watkins’ public comments emphasize realism around FDA, reimbursement, clinical evidence, capital access, cash management, and board/investor alignment. She has warned founders that leadership under cash pressure matters, contrasting CEOs willing to make hard cuts with those treating venture-backed companies like “a lifestyle company.”
• Rex Health Ventures’ strategic value proposition is health-system access: portfolio-company testimonials on the Rex site emphasize “the voice of the customer,” market dynamics, strategic guidance, and connections in a “world class health system.”