Zoic Capital is the only US-based venture firm focused on early-stage healthcare innovations at the intersection of life sciences and medical technology. Promising Scientific Advancements: We look for breakthroughs with the potential for broad IP and commercial-ready maturity. We invest in roadmaps that leverage a core innovation across many applications and industries. Focus on Life Sciences: We see the most exciting advancements coming from life sciences labs, becoming tools that maintain and treat our health. We look at both technologies that enable development and care delivery devices. We Follow the Numbers: We follow our gut, but we also reinforce each of our decisions with numbers. We believe that merging qualitative and quantitative analysis is the best way to make successful investment decisions. Mentored Capital: We have the skills, experience and network to help, working closely with select teams to transform research into high impact, market-ready products. Milestone-Based Investing: We craft unique deal structures for each portfolio company based on mutually defined milestones. We find this approach creates ongoing momuntum and sets us all up for success.

Zoic Capital

[Desjardins Venture Capital](http://www.dcrdesjardins.com/En/index.asp) is the venture capital fund management arm of the Mouvement des caisses Desjardins.  It manages the assets of Desjardins Venture Capital, a limited partnership, six Desjardins investment regional funds, as well as Capital régional et coopératif Desjardins, a public fund whose assets under management are projected to reach $1.425-billion over the next 10 years. Desjardins Venture Capital makes its network and expertise available to businesses.

Desjardins Venture Capital

Pallasite Ventures provides early-stage financing for high-growth companies across a variety of industries. It was founded by David Light and is based in Chicago, Illinois.

Pallasite Ventures

Advisors.fund invests in amazing entrepreneurs that are disrupting entrenched legacy incumbents and an accepted status quo. Another way to say this--- we seek early alpha companies that end up becoming what we call exciting lightning in a bottle investments.  To date, we've invested in over 100 investments in the SaaS, enterprise software, big data/AI and health tech sectors.  We invest opportunistically, at seed or pre A stage, in world-class entrepreneurs and their management teams. We seek those that are building protectable intellectual property and who intimately know their target market and customer they want to serve.   We are super active early on with our companies and commit to rolling up our sleeves by recruiting, making incredible game-changing introductions, conducting strategy sessions, helping to close Series A rounds--whatever it takes to best ensure success.  Typically, we are the most active early investor/advisor for our companies--thus our name--Advisors.fund. Advisor first, Fund second and our entrepreneurs love it.

Advisors.fund

DigitalDx Ventures is a Silicon Valley Venture firm uniquely positioned to find, support, mentor and grow the outliers in digital healthcare. DDX invests in early stage companies who effectively and efficiently harness the power of artificial intelligence and big data to profoundly impact outcomes in both diagnostics and therapeutics.

DigitalDx Ventures

Hike Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Hike Ventures

MEDTEQ is a non-profit organization for industrial research and innovation in medical technology. The organization accelerates the development of innovative technological solutions to improve patients’ health and quality of life by mobilizing Canadian talents. They bringing together the key players in healthcare and innovation allows them and their partners, to offer Canadians access to novel solutions. MEDTEQ’s mission is, through collaborative, industry-led projects, to accelerate innovation and position, on a global scale, products and services developed by the Canadian medical technologies industry.

MEDTEQ+

Innovacorp is an early-stage venture capital firm that helps knowledge-based startups commercialize their technologies in the global marketplace. It invests in early stage Nova Scotia entrepreneurs, combining venture capital with business mentoring and incubation facilities. Innovacorp was established in 1995 and based in Halifax, Canada.

Innovacorp

Founded in 2008, Anges Québec is a network of more than 230 angel investors whose mission is to invest capital and time in innovative Québec-based companies from all sectors of activity. The members of the Anges Québec network have, to date, invested more than $ 80 million in the Québec economy, with more than 210 investments in more than 115 innovative companies. Thanks to its professional development center, Anges Québec supports its members in the constant acquisition of new knowledge and skills inherent in the investment.

Anges Quebec

Real Ventures is an early-stage venture firm focused on serving daring entrepreneurs with the ambition to create successful, global companies. Since 2007, Real Ventures has dedicated itself to building the Canadian startup ecosystem on the belief that people, not money, build game-changing companies. Real Ventures provides stage-specific guidance, mentorship, and access to networks and resources to fast-track founders’ personal and company growth. Real Ventures manages $325 million across five funds and its active portfolio of 100+ companies is currently valued at $10 billion. www.realventures.com

Real Ventures

AQC Capital is an investment fund created to provide financial support to Anges Québec members. The fund is mainly sponsored by Investissement Québec to support angel investors who invest in innovative seed or start-up companies in Quebec. This joint effort by the angels and Investissement Québec has made more than $30 million available to entrepreneurs, allowing them to benefit from more substantial financial leverage in order to considerably increase the development of their business.

AQC Capital

Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund GmbH (BIVF) invests in groundbreaking therapeutics-focused biotechnology companies to drive innovation in biomedical research. BIVF is searching for significant enhancements in patient care through pioneering science and its clinical translation by building long-term relationships with scientists and entrepreneurs. BIVF’s focus is to target unprecedented therapeutic concepts addressing high medical needs in immuno-oncology, regenerative medicine, infectious diseases and digital health. These may include novel platform technologies to address so far undruggable targets, new generation vaccines and/or new biological entities, such as oncolytic virotherapy.

Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund

BioMed Propulsion program improves access to financing for companies in the life sciences sector.

Biomed Propulsion

The Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) is the only public charity solely dedicated to finding effective drugs for Alzheimer’s disease. Our pioneering biomedical venture philanthropy approach allows us to invest in the most promising drug discovery and development programs around the world in both academic institutions and biopharmaceutical companies. Since our founding in 1998, the ADDF has invested nearly $100 million to support over 500 programs across 18 countries.

Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation

Optina Diagnostics

Optina Diagnostics is a diagnostics company that uses innovative retinal imaging and artificial intelligence to provide non-invasive diagnostic test results for under-diagnosed diseases. Optina Diagnostics identifies patient retinal features that assist physicians in assessing patients' health status and disease risk in order to provide timely and appropriate care. Optina Diagnostics reimagines brain health assessment and provides critical information early in disease progression.

Canada-based Optina offers an eye test, which is a retinal imaging and diagnostics solution to detect Alzheimer's disease. Optina’s Retinal Deep Phenotyping platform uses a hyperspectral camera (Optina-4C) together with AI-powered technology (awAIr) to gather insights for patients, eye specialists, and physicians. Optina’s platform received the FDA breakthrough device designation status in 2019, and its hyperspectral camera (Optina-4C) received FDA clearance in 2020.

A concentration of wealth and a willingness to adopt age-in-place technologies present new opportunities.

Age Tech

Optina

Optina Diagnostics Earns Frost & Sullivan's 2022 North American Technology Innovation Leadership Award.

Canada-based Optina offers an eye test, which is a retinal imaging and diagnostics solution to detect Alzheimer's disease. Optina’s Retinal Deep Phenotyping platform uses a hyperspectral camera (Optina-4C) together with AI-powered technology (awAIr) to gather insights for patients, eye specialists, and physicians. Optina’s platform received the FDA breakthrough device designation status in 2019, and its hyperspectral camera (Optina-4C) received FDA clearance in 2020.Key customers and partnershipsOptina Diagnostics primarily serves healthcare providers and institutions focused on diagnosing and treating neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer's. The company has forged key partnerships with several healthcare organizations to enhance the accuracy and accessibility of its diagnostic tools.

Honor provides a platform for elderly persons and their families to find home care providers, and is claimed to be one of the largest on-demand home care networks in the US. The company’s key offerings include Home Care, Family Caregiver Resources, and the Honor Family App and Honor Family Care Network for remote monitoring.In August 2021, Honor announced the acquisition of home care provider Home Instead at an undisclosed value. The merged entity was expected to combine for over USD 2.1 billion home care services revenue.&nbsp; Key customers and partnershipsAs of August 2021, Home Instead had around 90,000 caregivers serving at 1,200 locations across the US and global markets. Home Instead acquired UK-based online platform SuperCarers in June 2020. It connects professional caregivers to elderly people seeking at-home care. Prior to the acquisition, SuperCarers had raised a total of GBP 4.9 million (USD 6.6 million).It also partners with the Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Applications (ORCHA) to provide quality assured apps for psychological wellbeing, physical activity, and mental stimulation.

Honor

Eargo specializes in developing hearing aid and related services. Eargo has four products in its lineup: Link by Eargo, Eargo SE, Eargo Neo HiFi, Eargo 6, and Eargo 7. The company’s products are unique due to its design meant to keep the device invisible when plugged in.The products are priced between USD 749 (Link by Eargo) and USD 2,490 (Eargo 7). The Eargo Neo HiFi comes alongside an app and offers connected smart features such as audio personalization and control. The app allows the user to control the audio to suit their surroundings, customize settings, and contact Eargo's licensed hearing professionals for consultation and support.In October 2020, Eargo was listed as a public company and then acquired by Patient Square Capital In October 2023. Via the acquisition, Patient Square Capital acquired all outstanding shares of Eargo—that were not owned by Patient Square—at USD 2.55 per share. Key customers and partnershipsThe company utilizes a business-to-consumer (B2C) online retail strategy compared to traditional business-to-business (B2B) model deployed by other manufacturers who sell their products through clinics. The strategy has proven beneficial through the Covid-19 pandemic as consumer footfall for brick-and-mortar clinics have declined.

Eargo

K4Connect provides technology solutions to residents and staff members in senior living communities through its K4Community platform. The company was co-founded by Scott Moody who sold his fingerprint sensor technology company AuthenTec to Apple for USD 356 million in 2012, which then became the basis for Touch ID.The platform's offerings include digital voice and video communication, and community updates for residents. It also provides smart home automation through the provisioning of plug and play Alexa devices for residents and supports smart thermostats, smart lights, motion sensors, and sleep tracking devices. In addition, community staff members have access to tools for resident surveys, resident and family management, and communications. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the platform also established an expanded video chat service to facilitate resident-to-resident communication, staff requests, yoga classes, and dining room bookings. Further, in March 2020, it partnered with software communications firm Bandwidth to introduce a hotline for staff and residents as a means of keeping all parties up to date with community information.The platform is built on the company’s patented operating system, FusionOS. The company claims that FusionOS is an advanced multi-modal edge-cloud architecture, the first of its kind in the senior living industry. Residents and staff can access the platform using a smartphone app or pre-provisioned tables in the living communities priced on a per-resident basis.As of July 2020, the platform served over 800 independent and assisted living senior living communities across the US. The platform serves over 29,000 users at more than 125 senior living communities across 27 customers as of February 2020, more than doubling its users from 2018, which it expects to repeat in 2020. The company has established channel partnerships with Allbridge (a data, video and voice solution provider for senior living) in July 2020, and Eskaton (a senior services provider) and White Horse Village (a continuing care retirement community) in May 2019. It collaborated with GlobalLogic (a digital product engineering company) in July 2020 to expedite the development schedule of its K4Community Plus app in response to Covid-19.

K4Connect

CarePredict was founded by Former IBM consultant and tech veteran, Satish Movva, and produces Tempo smart wearables for the elderly community. Using machine learning (ML), the company claims the app can reduce the chance of a fall, and predict urinary tract infections (UTIs) and depression ahead of a clinical diagnosis. The device aims to assist caregivers in taking preventive action by detecting activities and behaviors which are precursors to health declines. The data from the device can also be shared with family members.The company generates revenue from device sales and subscriptions. Independent research conducted in September 2020 indicated that facilities using CarePredict’s wearables reported 40% fewer hospitalizations 69%, lower fall rates, 67% increased length of stay, and a 37% improved staff response rate than facilities that did not use CarePredict.The company expanded its operations in 2018 through its acquisition of WiseWare, a company selling activity-tracking jewelry for older users. In April 2020, it launched the PinPoint contact-tracing tools to mitigate the spread of Covid-19.Key customers and partnershipsIn February 2021, the company announced its partnership with Middle Alabama Area Agency on Aging (M4A). M4A is the agency behind the “Providing Alzheimer's N' Dementia Assistance” (PANDA) project. The company will be the first tech platform to be part of the project and will provide caregivers assistance in remote monitoring and preventive care using its smart wearables.

CarePredict

Eversound develops wireless headphone systems to enhance the level of engagement and social interaction for the elderly living in assisted living or memory care centres. The platform provides a library of programmed content on a variety of topics. The headphone system can be used to communicate with caregivers, during group events, family visits, and for music therapy. The headphones are equipped with a wireless transmitter and volume controls. It connects to external audio sources such as community A/V systems, televisions, and audio devices.The product was unveiled in May 2016. In a subsequent six month study conducted by LCB Senior Living community, group events leveraging the Eversound system resulted in an 18% reduction of residents falling asleep and a 28% increase in engagement during group events. In December 2016, the company expanded to 18 states across the US.In March 2020, as a part of its Covid-19 response, the company launched a live streamed, interactive content service to help seniors combat isolation. Further, as in-person visits at assisted living communities were interrupted due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the use of Eversound’s visitation package proved to be crucial for socially distanced in-person visits. Key customers and partnershipsAs of December 2020, the company’s product is being used in more than 700 senior living communities across the US. Its clients include senior living communities such as Brightview, Commonwealth, and Oakmont. In addition, Eversound has established partnerships with senior living communities (such as The Arbor Company, Bridges by EPOCH, Christian Horizons, and Kisco) to roll out its devices for family visitations, and programmable and live streamed content.

Eversound

Tech-enabled equipment or companionship services that help elderly people function independently.

Platforms that match seniors with home care providers as well as app-based products to facilitate communication between senior families and caregivers

Tech-enabled products used to diagnose, prevent, and treat conditions common among seniors.

Remote monitoring, medical diagnosis, communication, and coordination between caregivers and families of the elderly.

Platforms that help seniors interact socially and communicate with others.

Platforms that help seniors and their families plan and make arrangements to settle the senior’s estates and affairs in the event of death.

Many devices that help seniors operate independently and receive remote treatment use IoT

Offers digital platforms that support the wellness of the senior population

Some companies use VR to help treat seniors with conditions such as isolation and dementia

Optina

About EDGE

Contact Us

Resources

Area of Focus

Technology Research Made Effortless