Issue 023
Digital health research from Brian Dolan

Welcome back to E&O Mondays, the free newsletter from Exits & Outcomes that features the world’s most complete weekly health tech funding round-up.

 E&O Mondays.

In this issue:

• After a few weeks of $1 billion round-ups, followed by last week’s almost $600 million, health tech funding crashed back down to the lowest amount of funding E&O Mondays has tracked since the low watermark $99-million-week of Thanksgiving last year.
• A new trivia question inspired by a recent STAT News report…
• Finally, if you’re new to E&O Mondays, this free newsletter isn’t much like the ones I send out Fridays and every-other-Wednesday (or the long-form research reports). Yea, yea, it’s great and all, but you’re really missing out if you only read this funding list each week. So, consider becoming a full-fledged subscriber of E&O by clicking right here…

This week’s health tech funding deals

OK, here’s what I found for the past week (a * means you are reading it first in E&O):

* This past week DCM Ventures quietly added Breathwrk to its portfolio page. Breathwrk self-describes as “a venture-backed startup located in Venice, California. Breathwrk’s mission is to change the health of the world with breathing. The Breathwrk app, which has over 600,000 users worldwide, offers guided breathing exercises backed by science that are shown to alleviate anxiety, promote sleep, increase energy, improve mood, help with athletic performance, and more.” Site

The biggest funding deal this week was the $40 million Series B that Firefly Health raised. Andreessen Horowitz led the round and return backers F-Prime Captial and Oak HC/FT chipped in too. Firefly is a virtual first primary care company that positions itself as “delivering half-priced healthcare that’s twice as good”. Former athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush is the company’s executive chairman. (It’s been a while since I downloaded a new telemedicine app, but within a few days of downloading Firefly and setting up an account I got a call from their call center. Is that typical now? I was surprised by the aggressive marketing tactic.)

Carta Healthcare, a self-described “provider of AI-powered clinical data abstraction technology and services”, raised a $17.3 million Series A led by Storm Ventures.

Canvas Medical, which offers a software bundle that includes an EHR, practice management systems, telehealth tools, and more, raised $17 million in funding co-led by Inspired Capital and IA Ventures. IRONGREY along with return backers Upfront Ventures and iSeed contributed too.

* Summus Global, an on-demand virtual specialist benefit sold through employers and DTC, quietly raised $16 million in funding. Site

Empathy, a startup that helps the family of a departed relative deal with all the things that follow a death in the family, raised $13 million led by General Catalyst and Aleph. TechCrunch

London-based Zedsen raised $12 million for its “non-invasive technology that helps consumers understand their health based on data coming from their bloodstream.” The company says: “Data gathered leads to hyper-personalized insights about health, fitness and diet, with support and suggestions as unique as each individual user.”

eBlu Solutions raised an $11.4 million Series A led by OCA Ventures with contributions from Mutual Capital Partners and FCA Venture Partners. eBlu is a digital health prior authorization software company with a particular focus on expensive infusion-based specialty medications.

Virtual group therapy on-demand startup Real raised a $10 million Series A led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with a little help from soccer star Megan Rapinoe and football pro Eric Kendricks. TechCrunch

Olive Union, which makes smarter hearing health devices designed for anyone, raised a $7 million Series B led by Beyond Next Ventures, Bonds Investment Groups, and Japan Policy Finance Corporation.

NYC and Berlin-based virtual fitness platform Moxie raised $6.3 million led by Resolute Ventures with help from Bessemer Ventures, Greycroft Ventures and various angels.

Reproductive technology startup Orchid has raised $4.5 million in seed funding from Refactor Capital, Village Global, Day One Ventures, Olive Capital, and Boom Capital.

* Decentralized clinical trials company RxE2, which might be better known by its platform’s name, Habitu, quietly raised $3.5 million. Site

* Electronic Caregiver, a remote patient monitoring-focused virtual care provider for pediatric patients, older patients, and people with chronic conditions, quietly raised another $700,000 boosting its latest raise to $6.2 million. Site

Health Tech Trivia Question

Here is this week’s trivia question, which I believe to be an easy one…

Rules: Don’t use Google. Just guess. Hit reply and email me your answer along with whether you want me to include your name/company, just your initials, or keep it anonymous. I’ll provide the answer next Monday along with the first three (3) people to get it right — if anyone does! I’m happy to link out to your company’s website too, which might be worth a lot in SEO mojo someday, who knows?

Question: On Friday, STAT reported that Google was once again toying with the idea of developing some kind of consumer-facing medical records tool. Google, of course, famously attempted this in 2008 before announcing plans to shut down the original Google Health personal health record in 2011. At the time of Google Health’s shuttering, what was the name of Google’s Chief Health Strategist? (Hint: He is currently Head of Health Strategy at Facebook.)

Hit reply if you know!