Issue 028
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:
- This past week’s round-up includes less than $1 billion in health tech funding, which is a bit unusual for 2021. The beginning of a summer slump?
- Plus: The answer to last week’s Elon Musk-themed health tech trivia question along with the names of two E&O readers who got it right.
- Finally, if you’re new to E&O Mondays, this free newsletter isn’t much like the ones I send 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…
Less than $1B in health tech funding this week.
Here’s what I found for health tech funding this past week. Cumulatively, this round-up ended up as just shy of $1 billion in funding deals. If you see a * in front of the funding news below, that means E&O reported first. (It also means the company may end up announcing a larger amount of money once the round closed and the funding is official.) As always, I simplified this list to remove funding verb-choice bias. (“Company X grabbed $5 million in funding.”) If you’re missing the full sentence structure, however, please assume that most of these companies “salted away” their latest round of funding, (but also know that I strongly believe one of them “finagled” their funding). Also, as another experiment, I used companies’ Linkedin descriptions instead of trying to deciphering what they do myself. As expected, the results were mixed:
$235 million – Cue Health – No label for the round. No lead. “A health technology company that develops professional and consumer connected medical diagnostics” Release
$150 million – Axtria – No label for the round. Lead: Bain Capital Tech Opportunities. “A global provider of cloud software and data analytics to the Life Sciences industry.” Release
$130 million – Huma – Series C. Leads: Leaps by Bayer and Hitachi Ventures. “A global health technology company transforming care and research.” Release
$110 million – Aetion – Series C. Lead: Warburg Pincus. “A health care technology company that delivers real-world evidence for life sciences, payers, providers, and regulatory agencies” Release
$100 million – Medically Home – Seed. Leads: Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente. “With the Medically Home Virtual Hospital Program, patients can now be admitted to their home rather than the hospital for acute and restorative care.” Release
$50 million – DrFirst – No label. Lead: Sixth Street Growth. “DrFirst pioneers healthcare solutions and services that connect people and information to improve patient outcomes.” Release
$47 million – Unmind – Series B. Lead: EQT Ventures. “A leading workplace mental health platform that empowers more than 2.5 million employees around the world to live more fulfilling and balanced lives.” Release
$25 million – JunoDx – Series A. Lead: Perceptive Xontogeny Venture (PXV) Fund. “Developing genetic testing solutions to improve access to vital health information.” Release
* $15.7 million – Protenus – “Provides healthcare compliance analytics to help health systems reduce risk and save money.” Site
* $14.2 million – HealthBridge Financial – “When a member has a claim, HealthBridge covers the costs immediately on their behalf. Then, we provide that member a consolidated monthly statement, plus friendly repayment terms, giving them financial security and flexibility.” Site
* $13.9 million – Edifice Health – “A digital health spin-out company from a 10-year Stanford research in human immunology offering a novel metric of inflammatory health.” Site
$11.6 million – Birdie – Series A. Lead: Index Ventures. “Improve the lives of millions of older adults by providing digital tools (apps, IoT & machine learning) and services that put preventative care at the forefront.” TechCrunch
$10.5 million – Memora Health – No label on this round. Lead: Andreessen Horowitz. “Building an operating system for care delivery that implements intelligent workflows to streamline care delivery and revolutionizes the patient experience outside the care setting.” Release
$6.75 million – Jasper Health – Series: Seed. Leads: 7wireVentures and Redesign Health. “Help patients stay organized with a smart planner and expert-approved recommendations, plus tools to activate support from family and friends.” Release
$5.2 million – DeepScribe – Series: Seed. Leads: Bee Partners and Industry Ventures. “Empower physicians with the tools they need to improve both efficiency and efficacy, and better patient outcomes by increasing the clarity, trust, and understanding they have with their physician. Through AI, we hope to better the bogged-down health care industry, and re-think the future of practicing and receiving medicine.” Release
* $4.5 million in a mix of debt and options – Fullfill – “Combines face-to-face virtual coaching, the best-proven weight loss techniques tailored to personal preferences, and a high-engagement empowerment program that surprises, provokes, delights, and challenges participants to awaken, be present and create the change they want to see in themselves.” Site
* $3.5 million in a mix of debt and equity – Nudj Health – This one is still keeping quiet but its CEO — or president, at least — is Yuri Sudhakar, the former CEO of BioTelemetry’s Geneva Health business. (He was also CEO and Founder of Geneva before BioTelemetry bought it.)
$3.3 million – DeltaTrainer – Series: Seed. Lead: TenOneTen Ventures. (E&O wrote about this last week before the news was official, but the announced funding is more than the company’s SEC filing from last week. “A trainer for you. 1-on-1 support to finally reach your fitness goals.” Release
* $1.6 million in a mix of options and other securities – LifeDNA – “Offers DNA-personalized health and wellness products. These include detailed, easy-to-understand genetic trait reports and meal and fitness recommendations with 1-on-1 ongoing DNA-based health coaching, all on a single platform.” Site
* $1.5 million – LIT Method – “LIT Method is the first of its kind to deliver a high intensity, low impact strength training workout, with no running, no jumping, and no weights, through its Los Angeles-based fitness studio, LIT On-Demand online video platform, and brand-new patent-pending multi-functional LIT Strength Machine.” Site
* $450,000 in a mix of debt and options – EpiWatch – “EpiWatch provides seizure tracking and epilepsy condition management on the mobile and wearable devices that people already use each day.” Site
Health Tech Trivia Answer
Here’s last week’s trivia answer…
ICYMI… the Question: In the mid-90s before he started his first startup Zip2, Elon Musk and his brother Kimbal worked on a concept for what we would call a digital health company today. Obviously, they didn’t pursue the idea, but they spent some time developing it. In a few words, explain the concept for the Musk brothers’ 1994 digital health idea. If it’s easier, what is the name of a current digital health company that is similar to what the Musk brothers considered building?
Hints: This was revealed in Ashlee Vance’s biography of Musk from 2015. When the book came out, I read it and had my team at MobiHealthNews write this piece of trivia up. So, you may have read about it in Mobi back in the day…
Who got it right? Two E&O readers got this one right. Many others guessed but didn’t get it, so this one turned out to be a bit harder than I expected. Hats off to these two very smart E&O readers for sending in the correct answer…
- Geoff Matous, President & Chief Commercial Officer, Wellinks
- Amir Kalali MD, Co-Chair of DTRA and Chief Curator and Chairman, CNS Summit
And… finally… the Answer: The brothers Musk went on a road trip to the Mojave desert in 1994 and “the best idea to arise from the journey was an online network for doctors,” Vance wrote in his Elon Musk biography. “This wasn’t meant to be something as ambitious as electronic health records but more of a system for physicians to exchange health information and collaborate.” Elon’s brother Kimbal explained to Vance that the brothers returned home and “went to work on a business plan and the sales and marketing side of it later, but it didn’t fly. We didn’t love it.”
Until next week…
