First Round is a seed-stage venture firm focused on building a vibrant community of technology entrepreneurs and companies, including Uber, Square, and Warby Parker. Through custom-built software, incredible in-person experiences, and a host of other unique services, First Round helps tiny companies get big while constantly reimagining the role of venture capital. It offers a growing number of services and products to help founders build companies from scratch. First Round has adopted the Diversity Term Sheet Rider.

First Round Capital

Nexus Venture Partners is a venture capital firm established by ex-entrepreneurs in enterprise technology and consumer internet. The firm was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, United States.

Nexus Venture Partners

Brainchild is a collective of engineers, operators, and designers that create products and services to solve some of the most significant problems facing consumers in healthcare, technology and consumer products. They consist of HERO, Onomie and The Arrivals.They also operate in both a technical and creative environment.  Brainchild also teams up with exceptional entrepreneurs to support their vision becoming a reality. To date, BCH has invested in 120 companies, 250 founders, with $4BB in follow-on capital, introductions, talent, growth, product, financing and strategy. Brainchild Holding’s seed investments include well-known companies such as Warby Parker, Oscar, sweetgreen, ClassPass, Tilt, Docker, Outdoor Voices, Gusto, Harry’s, Elysium, Seatgeek, and Smart Things; We also strategically support venture and later stage businesses.

Brainchild Holdings

Seven Peaks Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund focused on data-driven enterprise software, digital health technologies, ML/AI, IoT, and cloud-based solutions. Seven Peaks Ventures is located in Oregon and was founded by Dino Vendetti in 2013.

Seven Peaks Ventures

BoxGroup is an early-stage investment fund that invests in technology companies. The fund aims to invest in the consumer, enterprise, fintech, healthcare, life science, and marketplaces industries at the earliest stage, as early as pre-seed round and as late as Series A. It supports companies based on a conviction in the team and seeks entrepreneurs working at the beginning of movements in existing markets or new markets yet to be created and with visions to create the next generation of category-defining businesses. Their typical investment ranges from $200,000 to $500,000. Adam Rothenberg and David Tisch founded BoxGroup in 2009 in New York, New York.

BoxGroup

Techammer is an angel investor who helps founders solve important problems. Designers invest in data science, digital health, and companies that accelerate science. Companies that improve the lives of ordinary Americans pique our interest. The designers are both Midwesterners (Jeff from Michigan/Indiana and Halle from Ohio), and we both started our careers bagging groceries. Designers met in San Francisco, where we both lived for three months. The designers got married in Italy and just moved to the East Coast.

Techammer

NFX operates as a pre-seed & seed stage investor that is transforming how true innovators are funded for entrepreneurs. They believe that creating something of true significance starts with seeing things others do not. As Founders, they reinvented industries with this mindset. As investors, their approach is no different. They do this by asking ourselves one question - ideally, how should the startup experience work for Founders, both NFX and the whole ecosystem. NFX lens is always through the eyes of the Founder. The firm approach is to first build an early-stage experience for all Founders that is powered by more software. Second, to bring the founders they back exponential yet little-known techniques for network effects and growth. Third, to make visible the typically seen methods of technology's most impactful companies. Having built 10 companies with more than $10 billion in exits across multiple industries and geographies, they're entrepreneurs first because they're entrepreneurs first. And they are determined to guard the backs of the next generation of fearless founders.

iSeed is an early-stage investment company.  They focus on consumer mobile technology with a keen interest in healthcare. iSeed is committed to partnering with the next generation of technology startups to grow a lasting and impactful company.

iSeed Ventures

Eudaimonia Capital is an angel investment company that offers investments to early-stage companies. It is an extensive, global, angel portfolio with investments in more than 30 companies and performance more than 30% IRR. It is based in Singapore.

Eudaimonia Capital

Our mission is to coach and invest in entrepreneurial leaders building world-class, purpose-driven organizations. Led by Jeff Weiner and Brian Rumao. Sector focus areas include B2B / enterprise software, financial tech, consumer apps, health and wellness and education. We are interested in productivity software and virtual work, direct-to-consumer / e-commerce, SaaS, and data and AI/ML-powered platforms.

Next Play Ventures

Oak HC/FT is a venture and growth equity investment firm that focuses on healthcare information services and financial service technology.   The firm focuses on driving transformation in these industries by providing entrepreneurs and companies with strategic counsel, board-level participation, and access to our extensive network of industry leaders. Oak HC/FT partners are peerless in delivering returns for investors and growing innovative businesses. Over the past decade, the partners at Oak HC/FT have had 20 realizations with 6 companies achieving valuations in excess of $1 billion. Oak HC/FT is led by the Healthcare and FinTech team of Oak Investment Partners as part of Oak’s strategy to develop sector-specific funds and continue its legacy of building best-in-class businesses.

Oak HC/FT

Aberdare Ventures is a venture firm that focuses on a limited number of entrepreneurial teams committed to building leading healthcare technology companies. They limit their commitments in the belief that their involvement can increase the probability of success for their portfolio companies and generate greater returns for their investors.

Aberdare Ventures

CIGNA Corporation operates as a health service company in the United States. It helps to improve the health, well-being, and peace of mind of those it serves by making health care simple, affordable, and predictable.

Cigna

Liquid2 Ventures provides technology startups with seed-stage investments and is based in San Francisco, California. The firm was founded in 2015 by Joe Montana, Mike Miller, and Michael Ma.

Liquid 2 Ventures

Lifeforce Capital invests in digital health companies enabling new care delivery models or more efficient therapeutic development. Lifeforce Capital is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Lifeforce Capital

Valtruis, a WCAS portfolio company, provides a unique platform that invests in and partners with leaders of the health care industry.

Valtruis

Blue Shield of California is a non-profit organization that offers plans, comprehensive benefits, and access to various doctor networks in the United State. The organization complies with applicable federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or gender. Blue Shield of California was founded in 1939 by Natalie Cann.  It is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Blue Shield of California

Cigna Ventures is the arm venture of Cigna, that accelerate growth of start ups in health care industry. The company's mission is to accelerate Cigna’s ability to improve the health, well-being and sense of security of the people we serve by partnering with and investing in innovative companies, and delivering differentiated value in the marketplace. It focuses on harnessing transformative ideas in insights and analytics; digital health and retail; and care delivery and management.

Cigna Ventures

K2 HealthVentures is an alternative investment firm focused on providing flexible, long-term financing solutions to innovative private and public companies in the life sciences and healthcare industries. The investment team is comprised of collaborative, experienced professionals with diverse backgrounds in finance and operations, as well as deep domain knowledge across various healthcare sectors. A uniquely flexible, permanent capital structure enables the firm to provide creative, adaptive financing solutions and meet the evolving capital needs of its portfolio companies as they grow. K2HV is driven by dual goals of Profit and Purpose – aiming to fuel the growth of innovative companies that will ultimately improve the lives of patients and giving a percentage of investment profits back to underserved areas in healthcare.

K2 HealthVentures

Cricket Health

Cricket Health is a specialty kidney care provider of integrated nephrology and dialysis care for people with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD).  Cricket Health delivers world-class, technology-enabled multidisciplinary care both in-person and virtually to achieve the best outcomes possible for patients and the best value for partners, keeping patients healthy and out of the hospital, accelerating access to transplant, and increasing home dialysis adoption.  We are committed to aligning the success of our company with those of our partners and the patients whom we serve.  Learn more at www.crickethealth.com and follow us @crickethealth

<div>Cricket Health provides integrated nephrology and dialysis care to manage chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end-stage renal disease (ESRD). The company also triages CKD patients at stages 3b and beyond in order to provide stage-specific care using its StageSmart analytics tool.</div>

More important now than ever, telehealth will long outlast the pandemic that drove its growth.

Telehealth

Cricket Health Names New Chief Commercial Officer Ryan M. Jacobs

To offer a multidisciplinary care approach to members with late-stage chronic kidney disease (CKD).

A digital platform that offers specialty care services to address the specific needs of a patient or demographic, including consultations where patients are generally reluctant to meet practitioners face-to-face.

<div>
 
 Cricket Health provides integrated nephrology and dialysis care to manage chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end-stage renal disease (ESRD). The company also triages CKD patients at stages 3b and beyond in order to provide stage-specific care using its StageSmart analytics tool. 
 
 
 In August 2022, Fresenius Health, Cricket Health, and InterWell Health 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/12718">
 merged into a single kidney care provider
 </a>
 that focuses on the early stages of kidney disease. The value of the merged entity was estimated to be USD 2.4 billion. 
 
 
 The merged entity operates independently under the InterWell Health brand and brings together Fresenius Health&rsquo;s global dialysis operations, InterWell Health&rsquo;s network of more than 1,600 nephrologists, and Cricket Health&rsquo;s proprietary machine learning predictive analytics model for risk stratification and its patient engagement platform. The new entity utilizes its data analytics capabilities and patient engagement platform to identify high-risk patients and deliver in-person and virtual clinical support.
 
</div>

<div>
 
 Nice Healthcare is a US based telehealth company with a focus on primary care services to business-to-business (B2B) clients. Once the employer signs its employees with Nice (at a cost of USD 30 to USD 36 per employee per month), employees do not have to incur out of pocket expenses for Nice services and can schedule virtual or home visits within the time frames specified by the company. It connects patients with practitioners through a mobile app over video calls or text messages. Members can also request home visits which will be completed within a few hours, as claimed by the company. As of March 2022, Nice was operating in twelve states, and had over 400 small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
 
 
 In March 2022, the company raised USD 30 million in Series A financing led by DNA Capital which has been earmarked to expand its platform&rsquo;s reach among small and medium businesses. Additionally, the company is hiring three members for its management team to support the continuing growth of the organization.
 
 
 
</div>

Nice Healthcare

Amicomed is a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform which provides blood pressure monitoring services. It collects blood pressure data of patients from at-home devices, applies algorithms, and assesses the fluctuations in the blood pressure. Physicians can be connected and provided with blood pressure data of their patients in order to facilitate their workload, enabling more personalized management of patients regarding medication and lifestyle indications.Amicomed can also recommend actionable and personalized lifestyle interventions such as daily diet and exercises via virtual coaching.

Amicomed

Winston is a men’s health telemedicine platform that treats common issues impacting men such as sexual problems, hair loss, acne, and cold sores. Winston allows patients to consult doctors, place orders for prescription drugs, and offers free delivery to the homes of patients.The Toronto-based company aims to avoid men deferring doctor visits or withholding sensitive information. The consultation fee is covered by the provincial health plan, but the prescriptions are billed to the customer.

Winston

<div>
 
 Dialogue partners with employers and health insurers to offer telehealth services to their employees and members. The users have 24/7 access to doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals via audio, video, and chat options for wide arrays of physical and mental health needs, artificial intelligence-enabled (AI-enabled) triage, referrals, and prescription renewals. 
 
 
 The company launched its trademarked Integrated Health Platform in January 2021 to consolidate its virtual care, wellness programs, mental healthcare services, and Employee Assistance Program (EAP) onto a single platform. The company claims to be the only integrated health and wellness B2B platform in Canada. 
 
 
 Key Customers and partnerships
 
 
 Dialogue had direct relationships with over 2,000 customers across Canada and Germany as of December 2020 and served around 50,000 organizations through these partnerships. In addition, the number of members with access to the virtual platform topped 1 million in January 2021. 
 
 
 Fundings and financials
 
 
 As of March 2021, Dialogue was planning to raise CAD 100 million (USD 80 million) from an initial public offering that will be listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol &ldquo;CARE.&rdquo; 
 
 
 In Q2 2023, net losses reduced significantly YoY to CAD 5.8 million (USD 4.3 million) from CAD 8.4 million (USD 6.3 million) in Q2 2022. Top-line revenue met internal expectations, growing 17.2% YoY to CAD 25.5 million (USD 19.0 million), driven by &nbsp;an increase in new members (by 18.6% YoY), 
 an expansion of the attach rate as existing customers added more services, and full-quarter contributions from Tictrac.
 
 Dialogue Health has not provided any forward-looking guidance as the company has entered into an agreement to be 
 <a href="https://investors.dialogue.co/English/news/news-details/2023/Dialogue-to-be-Acquired-by-Sun-Life/default.aspx">
 acquired by financial services company Sun Life Financial
 </a>
 for a consideration of CAD 365 million (USD 270 million) or CAD 5.15 (USD 3.82) per share. The transaction is expected to close in Q4 2023. Post acquisition, Dialogue will delist from the Toronto Stock Exchange but will continue to operate as a standalone entity under the &ldquo;Sun Life Canada&rdquo; brand from its head office in Qu&eacute;bec. 
 
 
 
</div>

Dialogue

Grin offers telemedicine and remote monitoring services for orthodontic needs such as braces and teeth straightening. Patients can conduct self-scans (using a Grin device made available to patients in collaboration with 3M) which can be connected to their smartphones and share the feed with orthodontists to access dental solutions. The company plans to go to a subscription-based model after the pandemic. The app also encourages patients to have a 40-second check monthly and share the scan with a dentist in order to allow patients to regularly maintain their dental hygiene.Grin is the only Telehealth disruptor covered on the hub that provides virtual orthopaedic consultations.Funding and financialsIn April 2021, the New York-based teledental platform concluded a seed funding of USD 14 million, and the funds will be allocated to develop additional functionalities by building out its technology. The proceeds will also be used to scale up its team, expand its geographic footprint, and add doctors to the company’s orthodontic partner network.

Grin

Real-time collection of patients’ health-related data using any remote patient monitoring device combined with general telemedicine services to reduce readmission rates. 


A platform that facilitates the transmission of patient data to different locations for further evaluation and interpretation by medical specialists. 


Primary care through virtual consultations for general health-related concerns using a digital platform or mobile app. 

Companies developing B2B software solutions for patient engagement, care navigation, practice management, and electronic health records integration to facilitate telehealth services for healthcare providers. 

IoT is used by most telehealth providers to operate virtual services

All telehealth players are involved in digital health via virtual offerings

Industry players offer varying degrees of personalization for each target audience

Some players offer technology and platforms to healthcare providers, converting physical-only services into virtual services

Specific telehealth offerings focus on diversity and inclusion, providing care to LGBTQ+ or BIPOC populations

Generative AI is used to streamline administrative tasks such as clinical note-taking

Cricket Health

About EDGE

Contact Us

Resources

Area of Focus

Technology Research Made Effortless