Capital Raising Activity

PatientsLikeMe, based in Cambridge, MA raises its largest round- $100 million- led by Jun Wang the founder of iCarbonX of China

For a company that had only raised $25 million in the past, this is a true milestone. iCarbonX will integrate PatientsLikeMe into a newly developed alliance of companies all seeking to understand the factors that exacerbate disease or optimize health.

Until this round, the company was a networking platform for patients to share their experience. Now the company is bringing hardcore science into its platform by merging genetic, biological and patient-generated data with sequencing and artificial intelligence.

This investment is a true testament to the aspirations and ambitions of Chinese companies in the health technology sector. With one brush, PatientsLikeMe is now a global brand with a global reach. We love this deal and wish the company well.

San Francisco start up, Nuna, comes out of stealth mode with a $90 million raise led by Kleiner Perkins

The startup has built a cloud-based database as a subcontractor in the project to create a standardized data platform for Medicaid. The platform eventually will contain eligibility, claims and clinical data for all of the 74 million Medicaid enrollees. We are very impressed and believe standardization across the government payers market can eventually save billions of dollars in administrative costs.

TraceLink, based in North Reading, MA raises $51.5 million from Goldman and others

TraceLink helps drug companies fight counterfeiting by tracking their medicine shipments. TraceLink will be using the funds to expand its international operation.  To date the company has raised $77 million. With pharma being a global business, it makes sense for TraceLink to look to international markets for growth

Synthego based in Redwood City, CA raises $41 million from a variety of investors including the inventor of Crispr-Cas9 gene-editing technique, Jennifer Doudna

Synthego is one of the most interesting companies that we have come across in the past few years. The mission of the company was to build automated smart research facilities; turning biology into information science. The company is now focused on helping scientists in their Crispr research initiatives by providing them with important genetic material used in the process. The founders of the company worked at SpaceX, the private rocket company founded by Elon Musk.

PatientPing based in Boston, MA raises $32 million led by Andreesen Horowitz

The company has a novel idea of informing physicians whenever their patients receive care elsewhere including emergency departments. An average individual sees at least seven different providers a year. That number can be as high as 25 for the elderly and people with chronic illnesses.  The software “pings” the providers alerting them that their patient is visiting with other providers creating a seamless coordination of patient care. We will wait and see how this idea could materialize into a successful business because the cost of scaling the business model is quite steep. The company had previously raised close to $10 million.

Arcadia Solutions, based in Burlington, MA raises $30 million led by GE Ventures and Merck Global Health Innovation Fund

With over 60 customers, Arcadia is a data aggregation and analytics company for the ambulatory market particularly for practices affiliated with payers, ACOs and integrated delivery networks.  The company has grown via two acquisitions having bought Concordant, an EHR support services company in 2011 and Sage Technologies, a managed care services company in 2015. The new funds will be used to expand the company’s product line into population health management as well as its geographic coverage.

Arcadia is an excellent example of how a consulting company can morph into a software solution company. Barely 20% of such pivots prove to be successful.

NetGain of Saint Cloud, MN inks a $25 million investment from Bluff Point Associates

The company is an IT outsourcing company for physician practices and rural hospitals. It specializes in EMR implementation, data collection and storage, compliance services and related solutions. Think of it as Infrastructure-as-Service. In the complex environment of healthcare, the smaller providers are the ones most challenged with bureaucracy and regulatory pressure. NetGain will not be short of clients if they execute well.

Austin, TX-based Medici raises $24 million from unnamed investors

Medici is yet another e-visit platform but with a big difference; the company’s software actually helps doctors to set up their own e-visits platform. The subtle difference works around some of the regulatory issues that have been faced by companies such as Teladoc. The company is already in 12 states and plans to have a national footprint in a few months. We like the model.

Healthx, based in Indianapolis, IN receives growth capital from JMI Equity

Healthx has been around since 1994 and has had a few pivots. The company currently focuses on connecting payers to their members and providers through portals. One can argue that if you have a highway between these three constituents, you can deliver a variety of services as the market evolves. JMI is a smart PE firm, but we have to wait and see if the concept of portals is the most optimized way to connect to patients.

Augmedix based in San Francisco, CA raises $23 million led by McKesson Ventures and OrbiMed

Augmedix has a Google Glass-powered remote scribe platform. The platform aims to reduce the amount of time physicians spend on EHR charting. The company has raised total of $60 million to date.

According to the company, Augmedix has hundreds of primary care doctors, specialists and surgeons that use its products. Clients include Dignity Health, Sutter Health, Catholic Health Initiatives and others. We believe that the company has a bright future. Users report that they can see more patients every day and are able to engage more intimately with them.

Tampa, FL-based Avalon Health Services raises an undisclosed amount of capital in its Series C from BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, and Mosiac Health Solutions

Avalon has a great reputation in the laboratory benefit management space; effectively optimizing the usage of lab orders. This is particularly important as genetic testing- which is costly- becomes part of the care process. The round is to help the company manage its growth as more health insurers express interest in the company’s services. Echo, which is the new firm created by combining Mosaic and Cambia, will be managing the investment going forward.

Aledade, based in Bethesda, MD raises $20 million in Series C led by Biomatics Capital with participation form Venrock and Google Ventures (GV)

Farzad Mostashari, the CEO of Aledade, had a successful record as National Coordinator for HIT at HHS. Aledade, which has raised $55 million of capital to date, helps Medicare Shared Saving Programs to optimize their risk exposure by establishing value based contracts with various providers. The company now has expanded its services to commercial payers such as BCBS of Kansas, Highmark and others. The funds will be used to expand the Company’s provider network and grow its partnerships with commercial and Medicare Advantage health plans.

Vida Health based in San Francisco, CA raises $18 million in Series B led by Canvas Ventures

The company was founded in 2014 with the aim of connecting people suffering from chronic diseases with health coaches. Vida focuses on diabetes, depression, anxiety and high blood pressure. The wellness market is already a crowded one with companies such as Accolade, BetterUp, Virgin and Lemonade all focused on the same client base. Although the addressable market is fairly large, it has become increasingly difficult to build differentiated products. It appears that Vida integrates well with many fitness trackers including Fitbit, MyFitnessPal, and Apply Health

New York, NY- based COTA wraps up $18 million in capital raise from Boston Millennia Partners and others

We are intrigued by COTA’s business model. The company is a web based solution provider, which collects patient level data for the oncology sector. The technology helps both payers and providers to move from fee-for-service to value-based-reimbursement models through categorizing and sorting molecular genetic data. The data is then presented to the oncologists who can in turn use the knowledge to design the most suitable treatment. Celgene and Novartis are existing investors in the company.

MedNet Solutions based in Minnetonka, MN raises $16 million in Series B through Arrowroot Capital and others

Through its SaaS-based software platform, MedNet specializes in electronic data capture for global life science community. The software improves the efficiency of clinical studies and registries. Clients include pharma, CROs, and medical device companies. We all know that the clinical trial space is still in the dark ages and extremely paper intensive. Any company that can automate and increase the productivity of this industry will be a successful enterprise.

Limbix Health based in Palo Alto, CA receives investment from Sequoia Capital

To our knowledge, this is the first virtual reality platform investment in healthcare. Limbix helps patients to overcome anxiety, phobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder.  The company’s products are used by patients under the supervision of therapists. We look forward to more news on this young and promising company.

PeraHealth, based in Pompano Beach, FL inks a $14 million investment with Mainsail Partners

PeraHealth’s software can successfully predict the readmission and mortality risks of patients. The company’s capability is disease-agnostic. Pera’s real time surveillance can be used in ICU departments as well as in-patient settings. We like the sound of the model, particularly in light of the steep penalties for readmission set by the government.

Payspan based in Atlanta, GA receives a substantial investment from Primus Capital

We have written extensively about the healthcare payment sector. The space is super crowded with many focused on the patient responsibility portion. Payspan is one of the oldest players in the field. The company has been around since 1984 and has extensive relationships with payers. Using Payspan’s solutions, payers can pay providers or their members directly. We understand the company was seeking a buyer for a while. Although Payspan’s technology is not very advanced, it may be a decent platform to consolidate other players in the industry. Payspan connects 650 payers with over 1.3 million providers covering 107 million patients.

Afsaneh Naimollah

Xen Partners

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Palo Alto, CA 94301
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