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☆ One health-insurance startup is bucking the industrywide funding slowdown
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-04 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Read previewThe insurance startup Devoted Health managed to raise another $175 million last week despite the venture-capital downturn. Devoted has raised more than $2 billion in funding to date. Funding raised by Devoted and other health-insurance startups isn't included in these figures. New funding follows rapid growthDevoted said the Series E funding round came after a year of fast growth. The round was led by a syndicate that included The Space Between, Highbury Holdings, GIC, Stardust Equity, Maverick Ventures, and Fearless Ventures, Devoted said.

Persons: —, Bill Evans, megadeals, Oscar, Andreessen Horowitz, Catalyst Organizations: Service, Business, Rock Health Capital, Rock Health, Bright, Clover Health, Oscar Health, Highbury Holdings, Stardust Equity, Maverick Ventures, Fearless Ventures, Socium Ventures, Emerson, Prime Capital Partners, GreatPoint Ventures Locations: Waltham , Massachusetts

☆ 3 titans will fight to dominate the market for Wegovy in 2024
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-27 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Dozens of startups have jumped into the weight-loss market this year as weight-loss drugs, including Wegovy and Ozempic, have exploded in popularity. The few companies with enough money and brand recognition to stand up to Ozempic's distribution challenges — WeightWatchers, Noom, and Ro — can expect to compete for market dominance next year. But WeightWatchers signaled it's going all in on weight-loss drugs by launching its own behavioral program for patients on Ozempic in December. WeightWatchersLike WeightWatchers, Noom has remained staunchly in the weight-loss market since its 2008 launch. Ro launched its own program prescribing weight-loss drugs in January.

Persons: VCs, — WeightWatchers, Sari Kaganoff, WeightWatchers, it's, Sima Sistani, Noom, Ro, Zach Reitano, Kaganoff, Saeju Jeong, Sam Barnes, Aaron DeGagne Organizations: Business, Rock Health, Web, Getty, PitchBook Locations: Ozempic

☆ VCs are getting pickier about their weight-loss bets as startups rush to prescribe Ozempic
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-11 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Read previewWith the Ozempic craze in full swing, investors are getting picky about the weight-loss startups they want to back. Kaganoff predicted that in the new year some startups prescribing GLP-1s would invest more money in studies using real-world evidence to show their programs work. And despite the Ozempic frenzy, weight-loss startups captured a tiny fraction of the money invested this year. Investors had put about $211 million toward weight-loss startups through mid-November, representing about 3% of digital-health funding over that period, according to PitchBook. Alfie HealthSome unlikely sectors of the healthcare industry stand to benefit from the growth of the weight-loss market.

Persons: —, Sari Kaganoff, Crystal Cox, Kaganoff, Ro, VCs, Michael Greeley, Alyssa Jaffee, 7wireVentures, she's, she'd, Mounjaro, Mercer, Michael Siluk, PitchBook, Alfie Health, it's, Alfie's cofounders, Aaron DeGagne, Jordan, he'd, DeGagne, There's Organizations: Service, Business, Rock Health, Flare Capital Partners, Getty, Employers, Health, Investors, Phenomix Sciences, Mayo Clinic, PitchBook, Tusk Venture Partners, Sword Health Locations: GLP

☆ Healthcare VCs are focusing their bets on a handful of top startups, forcing the rest to scramble to stay afloat
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

In the first half of 2023, healthcare investors have written big checks for their top startup picks. 2023 is on track to be the lowest year of healthcare funding since 2019, Rock Health says. Digital-health startups in the US raised $6.1 billion in the first half of 2023, Rock Health's H1 2023 funding report published on Monday found. Right now, 2023 is on track to be the lowest healthcare funding year since 2019, according to Rock Health. Krasniansky said Rock Health expects many of the impending shutdowns to impact healthcare startups that sell products and services to patients online and on-demand, especially direct-to-consumer companies like telemedicine or mail-order-pharmacy startups.

Persons: It's, haven't, Healthcare's, healthcare's, Adriana Krasniansky, Krasniansky, Ian Chiang, he's, Lynne Chou O'Keefe, it's, Corey McCann, Chou O'Keefe, — Organizations: Rock Health, megadeals, Monogram Health, Frist Cressey Ventures, Flare Capital Partners, Define Ventures, Pear, Madison, Pear Therapeutics

☆ A subsection of tech is set to be worth $1 trillion. But taboos are holding it back
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( Hannah Ward-Glenton | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

watch nowInvestors are ignoring a huge subsection of tech because it's considered "taboo" – despite the fact that it is set to be worth $1 trillion by 2027. But just 3.3% of digital health investment in the U.S. went towards women's health between 2011 and 2020, according to digital consultancy Rock Health. Research by Women's Health Access Matters suggests that a $300 million investment into improving female health could generate around $13 billion. It is now one of the largest companies in the FemTech space and has a revenue of $100 million. The issue of not understanding women's health – and the importance of female-specific health solutions – has deeper roots.

Persons: it's, Agostini, Karen Taylor, Tania Boler, Boler, Valerie Evans, they're, hasn't, Deloitte's Taylor, Brittany Barreto, we're, Barreto Organizations: Rock Health, Women's, Research, Getty, Centre for Health Solutions, Deloitte, CNBC, European Women, McKinsey & Company Locations: U.S

☆ See the 18-slide presentation that startup Carta Healthcare used to convince investors to bet $25 million on its approach to saving hospitals money
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Carta Healthcare raised a $25 million Series B from backers like health system Memorial Hermann. That puts startups in need of a Series B round in a tough position. Insider got an exclusive look at the pitch deck Carta Healthcare used to raise $25 million in Series B funding. This article was initially published in November 2022 and has been updated in June following the official close of Carta's Series B. Here's the 18-slide presentation Carta Healthcare used to raise $25 million in Series B funding.

Persons: Hermann, Matt Hollingsworth, Brigham, Hollingsworth, Anna Brody, Carta, hasn't Organizations: Healthcare, Investors, Rock Health, Carta, Memorial Hermann Health, UnityPoint, Paramark Ventures, Frist Cressey Ventures, American College of Cardiology, Asset Management Ventures, Innovation, Mass, Maverick Ventures Investment Fund, Storm Ventures Locations: —, San Francisco

☆ The 3 main ways digital-health startups are competing for a slice of the $13 billion market for obesity care
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-24 | by ( Yeji Jesse Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have surged in popularity. A Rock Health report lays out three main ways startups are competing for a slice of the market. As weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy surge in popularity, digital-health startups are jumping in — offering everything from prescriptions to weight-management tools to compete for a slice of the $13 billion market. That's according to a new report by Rock Health, which lays out three main ways digital-health companies are vying to get in on obesity care. Rock Health said these platforms could be used in conjunction with weight-loss drugs to help track progress.

☆ The pharmacy that quietly powered top startups in the hottest part of healthcare is trying to reinvent itself after losing customers and closing facilities
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

"We were shocked," a former employee in Truepill's business development division said of the layoffs. Insider spoke with five former and two current Truepill employees about the challenges the company is confronting after a tumultuous year. Truepill was hiring employees rapidly, accumulating about 1,800 employees by the spring of 2022, according to one former employee in Truepill's business division. Since then, there's been a companywide push to inch closer to profitability, one of the current employees told Insider. It's also downsizing its Miami pharmacy, the current employee said.

The digital-health sector in 2020 and 2021 was the hottest part of healthcare. We spoke with top bankers and dealmakers to understand what comes next as the market cools. The pace of digital-health deals has generally slowed since the highs of 2021. Founders can thank rising interest rates, a punishing stock market for digital-health companies, and a minor banking crisis to name just a few reasons for that. Here are the healthcare industry's go-to investment bankers, in alphabetical order, and their predictions for which trends may push digital-health deals forward after a funding slump.

☆ 6 startups that have raised $100 million or more in 2023 to change healthcare
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Yeji Jesse Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The healthcare-staffing startup ShiftKey raised $300 million in a round led by its majority investor Lorient Capital. The clinical-trials-tech startup Paradigm raised a $203 million Series A round led by Arch Venture Partners and General Catalyst. The healthcare-staffing startup ShiftMed raised a $200 million round led by Panoramic Ventures. raised a $200 million round led by Panoramic Ventures. Vytalize Health, a startup that helps doctors provide value-based care, raised $100 million from Enhanced Healthcare Partners, Monroe Capital, and North Coast Ventures.

☆ See the 6 startups that have raised the most cash in 2023 to transform healthcare
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Yeji Jesse Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Startups in the industry raised $3.4 billion across 132 deals in the first three months of 2023. The healthcare-staffing startup ShiftKey raised $300 million in a round led by its majority investor Lorient Capital. The clinical-trials-tech startup Paradigm raised a $203 million Series A round led by Arch Venture Partners and General Catalyst. The healthcare-staffing startup ShiftMed raised a $200 million round led by Panoramic Ventures. raised a $200 million round led by Panoramic Ventures.

☆ We got the presentation health-tech veteran Jonathan Bush used to land $40 million for his new startup Zus Health
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Blake Dodge | Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Zus Health, his new startup, aims to continue some of his work at Athena to digitize patient health. Zus Health launched in 2021 with $34 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, F-Prime Capital, Maverick Ventures, and Rock Health. Bush, Zus' CEO, told investors in a pitch, per a video Bush sent to Insider. Bush told Insider he was "blessed" to have his stake in the company diluted in this fashion, given the funding climate. "There's all these little pieces, but all of them are just re-clipboarding because nobody has a common clinical story," Bush told investors.

☆ See the pitch deck Zus Health used to convince top VCs like Andreessen Horowitz, F-Prime, and Maverick to back its solution for healthcare's $140 billion data-sharing problem
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Blake Dodge | Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Zus Health launched in 2021 with $34 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, F-Prime Capital, Maverick Ventures, and Rock Health. Bush, Zus' CEO, told investors in a pitch, per a video Bush sent to Insider. Bush told Insider he was "blessed" to have his stake in the company diluted in this fashion, given the funding climate. "There's all these little pieces, but all of them are just re-clipboarding because nobody has a common clinical story," Bush told investors. Here's the deck Zus used to raise $40 million from Andreessen Horowitz, F-Prime Capital, Maverick Ventures, and Jazz Venture Partners.

☆ Inside digital health's reckoning, where once-hot startups are suddenly scrambling for cash
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Blake Dodge | Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Analysts and CEOs told Insider more than half of healthcare startups will shut down by 2024. Healthcare startups looking to stay afloat have been laying off employees left and right. The online pharmacy Truepill burned through its cash as it struggled to fill prescriptions efficiently, two former employees told Insider. A spokesperson for Truepill told Insider in an email that the company's burn rate was in line with its projections. Courtesy NOCDWhile the broader economic pressures will hurt many startups that can't raise, it may help others, experts told Insider.

☆ A top healthcare banker predicts some digital-health startups will be able to go public in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

SVB Securities' Jon Swope thinks some digital-health startups will IPO in the second half of 2023. In 2021, 15 US-based digital-health companies went public via IPO, according to Rock Health. Only one digital-health company has gone public this year: Akili Interactive Labs, which went public in August in a SPAC deal. Seeing the writing on the wall, digital-health companies like Komodo Health that sought to IPO this year are now putting those plans on hold. But SVB Securities' Jon Swope said he thinks the IPO market will reopen for certain digital-health companies in the second half of 2023.

☆ 4 hurdles Walmart needs to clear in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Ben Tobin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Analysts expect the retailer to work through excess inventory in 2023, but obstacles may arise. Here are four major Walmart challenges to watch in 2023. Expanding clinic presence is a 'must' to create major healthcare gainsA Walmart Health clinic. In 2022, Walmart saw competitors like Amazon make major healthcare splashes. Part of expansion has been announced for 2023, as Walmart plans to launch 16 more clinics in Florida by the end of the year.

☆ A therapist from online provider BetterHelp reportedly told a 22-year-old gay patient to turn straight so he could reunite with his family
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

But according to Hill, the therapist that online provider BetterHelp matched him with did exactly that. "He said either you sacrifice your family or you sacrifice being gay," Hill told The Wall Street Journal. A former clinical director at the company told The Journal that therapists were "treated like Uber drivers." The company told the Journal it goes thorough background checks and also relies on state licensing boards, which certify therapists. A spokesperson for BetterHelp told Insider by email: "We firmly stand behind the high-quality service provided at BetterHelp, both in successful therapist matching and ongoing care."

☆ Only a handful of psychedelics companies have gotten funding from established biotech investors. Here's what they've done right, according to a top VC.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Yeji Jesse Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

RA Capital is one of the few mainstream biotech VCs wading into the psychedelics space. The number of companies touting the benefits of psychedelics for healthcare is rapidly growing, but not all biotech investors are on board yet. Last year RA Capital made two investments into the psychedelics spaceIn 2021, RA made its first investments into the psychedelics space by funding two startups: GH Research and Delix Therapeutics. Dublin, Ireland-based GH Research is one of the only psychedelics companies to have garnered a flurry of interest from mainstream healthcare investors including RA Capital, RTW Investments, and BVF Partners. Lusaris' treatment is designed to be taken sublingually — placed under the tongue — for treatment-resistant depression.

☆ Here's why digital health experts think a slowdown in record funding will benefit the industry
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Digital health funding has cooled off after reaching record levels in 2021, as interest rates rise. The frenzied digital health market has finally chilled out. But there's a silver lining to the cooldown, digital health experts said during a panel at the HLTH conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday. "It was exciting and manic and lots of great ideation and creation, but totally ridiculous," Jonathan Bush, founder and CEO of the startup Zus Health, said of digital health funding at its height. Funding in digital health tumbled to $12.6 billion as investors contended with rising interest rates amid a market downturn.

☆ Here's an exclusive look at the 18-slide presentation that a health-data startup used to land $20 million as it eyes profitability
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Carta Healthcare just announced $20 million in Series B funding led by Paramark Ventures. That puts startups in need of a Series B round in a tough position. The health-data startup said on November 2 that it had raised a $20 million Series B round led by Paramark Ventures. Insider got an exclusive look at the pitch deck Carta Healthcare used to raise $20 million in Series B funding. Here's the 18-slide presentation Carta Healthcare used to raise $20 million in Series B funding.

☆ Digital-health veteran Halle Tecco said she'd never start another healthcare company. Then she launched a startup to reimagine how egg donors get paid.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Halle Tecco is a "one-woman venture studio" as a cofounder of the fertility startup Cofertility. Halle Tecco got the idea for Cofertility after she left Rock Health, the digital-health venture-capital firm she cofounded in 2016. But egg freezing wasn't nearly as popular then, she said, so she instead founded the fertility startup Natalist in 2018. How Cofertility worksAt launch, Tecco said Cofertility had completed screening for more than 50 donors and that nearly 1,000 donors had started the application process. 'One-woman venture studio'From the beginning of Cofertility, Tecco said she was intentional about wanting to lead the business' ideation and development, not its day-to-day operations.

☆ Walmart's mission to offer accessible healthcare has been slow going. But as competition heats up from Amazon, it has developed these 5 strategies to disrupt the lucrative industry.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Ben Tobin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The company has made several big moves on telehealth, clinics healthcare research, and more. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer announced in October the launch of the "Walmart Healthcare Research Institute," an institute geared toward helping underserved communities participate in clinical research. But Walmart has still faced significant challenges, from major leadership departures to a slower than expected rollout of healthcare clinics. Rolling out healthcare clinics nationwideA Walmart Health center. Launching a research institute for clinical trial participationWalmart is seeking to bolster clinical trial participation with its new healthcare research institute.

☆ 34 of the most promising women's health startups of 2022, according to VCs
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | Samantha Stokes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

We asked top venture capitalists to name the most promising women's health startups so far in 2022. The result is a list of 34 companies covering everything from menopause to cardiovascular health. Last year, funding for women's health startups exploded to an impressive $2.5 billion, about a threefold increase from the previous year, according to data from McKinsey and Rock Health. Some think the colloquial label "femtech" for women's health startups prevents investors from seeing the potential of the space. Insider asked top investors to nominate the most promising women's health startups they'd come across, both within and outside their portfolios.

☆ Digital-Health Venture Funding Pulls Back from Last Year’s Rush
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Brian Gormley | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Venture-capital investment in digital health is down from last year’s record pace and increasingly focused on startups to help healthcare providers operate more effectively, an industry report said. U.S. startups in digital health—including telemedicine, software-based therapeutics and technology to help medical practices function more efficiently—secured $2.2 billion in venture capital during the third quarter, according to Rock Health, a San Francisco-based venture investor and advisory firm. It was the slowest quarter for digital-health investment since the fourth quarter of 2019, when companies raised $2.1 billion, Rock Health said.

☆ Cerebral is trying out an unusual clinical trial for a depression drug that has other companies wary. Here’s why.
▼ + stars: | 2022-01-14 | by ( Megan Hernbroth | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The mental-health startup Cerebral partnered with Alto Neuroscience for a clinical trial. The mental-health startup Cerebral is teaming up with Alto Neuroscience on an upcoming home-based clinical trial for the biopharmaceutical company Alto's depression-drug candidate, according to federal records. The idea behind the partnership is that Cerebral is a mental-health company treating patients with depression, the condition for which Alto is developing treatments. Cerebral Chief Medical Officer David Mou told TechCrunch in December that the startup provided patients for the trial "within an hour." How Alto is running the trialThe trial with Cerebral does not include a control group, according to the filing.

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