Kuruvilla always invested on the side when he was in medicine. In 2008, he turned a hobby into a career when he joined Clarus Ventures, a health care venture capital firm with offices in Boston and San Francisco. That same year he started the mutual fund with money from friends and family.

A practicing Christian, Kuruvilla wanted the fund to reflect his values. In addition to avoiding certain industries like tobacco and gambling, the fund invests in businesses “that create goods and services we can be proud of,” Kuruvilla said.

Eventide’s website has a “faith and business” blog that explores the intersection of religion and commerce. In the fund’s first few years, Kuruvilla did much of his fund-raising by tapping into a network of Christian financial advisers.

‘Biblically Responsible’

“Some people think you have to choose between investment excellence and morality,” said Jeff Rogers of Orlando, Florida, an early investor in the fund who is active in a movement called biblically-responsible investing. “With Eventide you get both.”

Attracting money is no longer a problem for Kuruvilla. After Eventide Gilead gained 53 percent in 2013, investors poured $564 million into the fund last year and another $486 million in the first four months of 2015, according to Morningstar.

The fund’s next biggest area of concentration after health care is autos and auto parts. Kuruvilla bought Tesla Motors Inc. in 2011 after listening to two people rave about the car and tell him they were members of a Tesla club. Following the Peter Lynch principle, he went out and test drove a Tesla and had his brother do the same.

“I drive a Volvo, but I’m not in a Volvo club,” he said.

Shares of the Palo Alto, California-based carmaker, which sold for an average of about $27 a share when Kuruvilla first invested in 2011, closed Tuesday at over $247.

Expensive Stocks

The fund manager had a personal connection to another successful investment, Bluebird Bio Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Kuruvilla met the management team at his venture capital firm and was impressed with them and their technology, a gene therapy for sickle-cell anemia.

BlueBird, the largest stock holding in both Eventide funds, has doubled in 2015.

David Kathman, a Morningstar analyst who follows Eventide, said the fund may hit a rough patch once the rally in biotech ends. The NASDAQ Biotechnology Index has returned three times as much as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index over the past five years.

“Biotech stocks are not going to stay this hot forever,” Kathman said in a telephone interview.

The biotech index lost almost two-thirds of its value in the two years ended Sept. 30, 2002, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The index currently trades at a price-to-earnings multiple of 86 compared with 19 for the S&P 500.

While conceding that biotech stocks have run up in price, Kuruvilla said the field still holds promise for investors as the science gets better and large companies buy up small firms with good pipelines. The volatility of the stocks could also be a plus, he said.

“A lot of people pile into these stocks late after they have gone up and if something bad happens they will head for the hills,” said Kuruvilla. “That creates opportunity for a long- term investor who understands the field.”

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