Longitude Capital specializes in making venture growth investments in biotechnology and medical technology companies that seek to improve clinical outcomes, enhance the quality of life, and/or reduce system costs. They invest in both privately held and publicly traded life science companies through a variety of investment approaches. Since 2006, Longitude Capital has raised over $1.2 billion across three funds and demonstrated an ability to source, manage and exit attractive investments across multiple market cycles. Their venture growth strategy is rooted in building a balanced portfolio of clinical-stage and commercial-stage companies with clinically de-risked assets, favorable valuations relative to risk profile, and attractive expected returns within three to five years from the initial investment. Longitude Capital seeks to identify new investment opportunities by tapping into their broad network of industry relationships or through the execution of intensive thematic research into emerging therapeutic areas or industry sub-sectors. They utilize a variety of investment structures, including traditional venture capital, asset spin-outs, recapitalizations, PIPEs, open market purchases, royalties, and other equity and equity-linked instruments.

Longitude Capital

.406 Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in innovative Information Technology (''IT'') and services companies founded by the finest entrepreneurs. They are a veteran team of industry entrepreneurs, operators and investors who apply real world experience, deep industry knowledge and networks, and strong company-building skills to create value for our entrepreneurs and investing partners.   .406 Ventures typically are the lead, first institutional investor in early-stage and de novo investments in market-changing IT Security and Infrastructure, Technology-Enabled Business Services, and Next-Generation Software companies.

.406 Ventures

Aperture Venture Partners is a venture capital group committed to working with exceptional entrepreneurs to tackle significant problems and create major new opportunities. They work with companies across a variety of sectors, primarily within the healthcare and healthy living industries. Their initial investment size ranges between $1 million and $5 million and they invest nationally. Their principals have been entrepreneurial leaders in the healthcare and investment industries over the past 30 years. They have successfully invested more than $1 billion and founded companies that have had combined revenues greater than $1 billion.

Aperture Venture Partners

Questa Capital Management is a healthcare venture growth equity firm investing in breakout growth companies. Questa seeks out disruptive business models that improve lives and provide better quality and more efficient care. They partner with superior management teams to help build innovative market leaders. Questa Capital Management's mission is to generate outstanding returns for investors and management teams.

Questa Capital Management

Deerfield is an investment management firm. They provide a healthcare ecosystem through information and investment. They also provide private and public investments across the life science, medical device, diagnostic, digital health, and health service industries.

Deerfield

Optum Ventures provides capital and strategic guidance to startup companies solving health care's pressing challenges. It is the venture capital investment arm of Optum that invests in digital health companies that use data and insights to help improve consumers' access to health care services and how care is delivered and paid for, and that makes the health care system more reliable and easier to navigate.

Optum Ventures

RA Capital Management is an investment advisor based in Boston specializing in the life-sciences and drug development sectors. The company's team has been investing since 2002 and is comprised of professionals with training in biology, chemistry, and medicine and also has industry and business development experience at the executive and board levels. The company invests in companies with promising technologies and products.

RA Capital Management

Echo Health Ventures is a venture capital firm that focuses on investing in health care companies. From offices in Durham, Portland, and Seattle, Echo Health Ventures invests in health care companies. They work with portfolio companies to accelerate their innovations to scale nationally. As stage-agnostic investors, they are committed to a new approach to strategic investing – an approach that brings more than capital to the table, an approach focused on developing deep, high-value relationships with their portfolio companies.

Echo Health Ventures

Ajax Health accelerates medical innovation through capital and capabilities.

Ajax Health

Autism Impact Fund is to invest in life science breakthroughs and therapeutics, innovative service companies, and life beyond childhood.

Autism Impact Fund

CVS Health Ventures is a dedicated corporate venture capital fund that invests in and partners with high-potential, early-stage companies that strive to make health care more accessible, affordable, and better.

CVS Health Ventures

LRVHealth is the “Inside Healthcare” venture capital platform. LRVHealth’s investors include leading provider, payer, and vendor organizations, comprising a network that touches one in three healthcare consumers across the U.S. Together, this network collaborates to identify, invest in, and adopt innovative solutions to the industry’s most pressing needs. Founded in 2000 by an experienced team of healthcare investors, operators, and advisors, the LRVHealth team provides early stage capital, operating experience, and industry insights to build the next generation of great healthcare companies.

LRVHealth

The University of Wisconsin Foundation is the official fundraising and gift-receiving organization for the University of Wisconsin-Madison and other donor-designated units of the UW System. Thanks to the generosity of alumni and friends, total gifts received by the Foundation since 1945 now stand at more than $2.41 billion.   The Foundation is an independent, not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization, which raises funds and receives gifts for the UW-Madison. An elected board of directors oversees its assets and activities. The Foundation works closely with the University to determine and support fundraising priorities.   Established in 1945 by a small group of loyal volunteers, the UW Foundation was one of three organizations created by visionary UW alumni working to ensure a productive future for the University of Wisconsin.  The other members of the trio included the Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA), established 80 years earlier to maintain contact with far-flung graduates, and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), created in 1925 to assist in patenting and licensing technology created by UW scientists and researchers.   The Foundation completed the threesome to encourage a growing practice of making gifts to the University.   The University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation (UWMF) is the clinical practice organization for the faculty physicians of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, the largest academic, multi-specialty physician group in Wisconsin.   UWMF provides clinical sites, technical and professional staff and administrative services to UW faculty physicians. The organization is dedicated to helping those physicians meet the UW School of Medicine and Public Health’s missions of quality patient care, medical education and research.

University of Wisconsin Foundation

Ascension Investment Management is to help faith-based organizations meet their operating, investment, and mission goals.

Ascension Investment Management

Cortica

Cortica provides diagnoses for autism, ADHD, developmental delays, and developmental differences. They offer in-home, in-clinic, and telehealth services. Their services include gene sequencing, metabolic testing, electroencephalography, nutrition evaluation, medication management, ABA therapy, parent coaching, speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, music therapy, and more.

Cortica offers various behavioral therapy options for children who face developmental challenges like autism spectrum disorders, pediatric strokes, and behavior disorders. The therapy options include speech therapy, music therapy, neuromodulation therapy, and nutrition counseling. The treatments are available in-person, at home or online, depending on the child's specific needs.

New technologies are opening up mental health services to previously overbooked and underserved populations.

Mental Health Tech

Cortica secures USD 80 million in equity funding to expand nationwide.. Cortica.. product 

Cortica offers various behavioral therapy options for children who face developmental challenges like autism spectrum disorders, pediatric strokes, and behavior disorders. The therapy options include speech therapy, music therapy, neuromodulation therapy, and nutrition counseling. The treatments are available in-person, at home or online, depending on the child's specific needs.The firm leverages data analytics, an in-house scheduling software platform and clinical decision support tools to provide applied behavioral analysis, medical, counseling and developmental services to children diagnosed with autism.In April 2023, the firm acquired two healthcare organizations, which increased Cortica's total integrated autism centers to 23 with 1,600 providers across seven states in the US. Following the acquisitions, the company was expected to serve more than 10,000 neurodivergent children and their families in 2023.Key customers and partnershipsThe company operates a B2B2C business model, partnering with health insurance companies for value-based payment arrangements.&nbsp;In September 2022, Cortica partnered with Point32Health to provide services to Tufts Health Plan commercial members and MassHealth members in Massachusetts. Cortica has also partnered with CVS Health Ventures, which led a USD 40 million funding round for the company in October 2023. This partnership aimed to improve access to Cortica's services for CVS Health members and their dependents.

Boulder Care is a telehealth provider that offers virtual addiction treatment for substance use disorders, primarily focusing on opioid and alcohol use disorders. The company provides medical care, medication management, peer recovery coaching, and case management services through a mobile app, allowing patients to connect with a multidisciplinary care team, including physicians, nurse practitioners, peer recovery specialists, and social services support. Boulder Care's treatment approach includes medication-assisted treatment (MAT), prescribing medications such as buprenorphine-naloxone (Suboxone) for opioid use disorder and naltrexone, acamprosate, and others for alcohol use disorder. The company also delivers naloxone doses to patients to help reverse opioid overdoses.The company has implemented value-based payment arrangements with insurers, tying its financial success to patient outcomes. As of May 2024, Boulder Care had served over 12,000 patients across multiple states, with a concentration in Washington, Oregon, and Ohio. The company reports retention rates of 70%–80% of patients remaining in treatment after six months, significantly above the national average. Boulder Care had also expanded its services to include treatment for adolescents as of January 2024.Key customers and partnershipsBoulder Care has established partnerships with numerous health plans and employers to provide access to its services, including Elevance Health, UnitedHealth Community Plan, and Centene.

Boulder Care

<div>
 
 7 Cups provides an emotional-support platform with a network of volunteer listeners. Users can anonymously access either one-on-one chats or group chats 24/7, free of charge for issues such as depression, anxiety, relationships and those related to the LGBTQ+ community. It also teaches users skills such as meditation to improve their lives. If users want additional support, the company also provides access to an online therapy platform with a network of 180 licensed therapists for a subscription plan of USD 150 per month. 7 Cups is available for users above 13 years of age (users between 13 and 17 years old engage with listeners who are specifically trained in teenage interactions).
 
 
 Volunteer peer listeners get free training and support as well as flexible scheduling. Once a user requests a chat, it will be directed to available listeners and if the user requests a specific listener, he will be connected as soon as the listener accepts the demand. The service is anonymous and the listener has no access to the details of the user unless the information is disclosed to the listener by the user in their conversations. As of January 2022, 7 Cups has facilitated more than 51 million conversations, served 25 million individuals, and had 300,000 trained listeners. The listeners serve in 180 countries in 140 languages.
 
</div>

7 Cups

wayForward provides technology-supported behavioral health and emotional wellness services for employers planning to make services available to their employees. It uses a screening procedure designed by neuropsychologists to triage and help employee members get clinically relevant mental healthcare. The company provides a self-guided app, text-based coaching, video visits, telepsychiatry, and if required, in-person visits or an on-site counselor. wayForward leverages its evidence-based approach and artificial intelligence in delivering its services and claims that it has been able to reduce anxiety symptoms by 48% and depression symptoms by 59%.The company raised USD 2 million in a seed round in June 2020, which brought total funding to USD 4.5 million. DarioHealth, a chronic disease management platform based in Israel, signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of wayForward in May 2021 for a total consideration of USD 30 million. As of May 2021, the wayForward had approximately 20,000 members and was available in North America, Australia, and Europe.

wayForward

Coa is a mental health company that conducts online classes led by licensed therapists for mental health users. The classes focus on conditions such as stress, anxiety, confidence and relationships. The company raised USD 3 million in a seed round in October 2020 from investors led by Crosslink Capital.

Meru Health is an online platform that connects patients experiencing stress, depression, anxiety, burnout, and other mental health issues to licensed therapists. The company was founded by Kristian Ranta in 2016 after his older brother died from suicide after battling depression. The platform offers a 12-week program and personalized text-based coaching services and virtual workshops. Meru also provides access to progress reports and anonymous peer support groups as well as sleep, nutrition, and mindfulness advice. The program utilizes a wearable device that monitors heart rate variability and provides real-time feedback, allowing patients to visualize the connection between their mental and physical health.In March 2024, Meru Health introduced a 100% fees-at-risk pricing model for healthcare payers and employers, guaranteeing outcomes, access, and engagement. This value-based care approach aims to incentivize enrollment, quality care delivery, cost management, and medical cost savings.The company reported a 10x YoY growth in its customer base in 2020 and plans to serve 10 million users by 2027. The company also achieved 8x YoY growth in revenue in 2020 amid an increase in demand in mental health services brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.Key customers and partnershipsMeru Health partners with major health insurance providers, including Humana, Aetna, and Moda Health. In January 2022, the company joined Evernorth's national behavioral health provider network, making its services available to Cigna health plan customers accessing benefits through their employer or individual and family plans.Meru Health also works with employer groups to provide mental healthcare for employees. In September 2022, Meru Health and clinical trial platform Curebase <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13230">announced a partnership </a>to carry out a three-year clinical trial to measure the effectiveness of Meru Health’s 12-week digital depression treatment targeting primary care patients. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health’s Small Business Innovation Research program.

Meru Health

Online peer-to-peer platform and support system that connects mental health communities.

Mobile-based apps and FDA-approved software that incorporate evidenced-based cognitive behavioral therapy to prevent, treat, or manage mental and behavioral conditions in conjunction with or as a replacement for traditional medication.

Products for behavioral health and mental health tracking, measurement-based care, and real-time remote monitoring of patients.

Subscription or membership-based platforms and apps to connect therapists, psychiatrists or behavioral health coaches with patients.

Offers virtual offerings for mental health consultations

Mental healthcare services offer personalized care tailored to a user's needs and treatment progression

There are mental health providers offering services specifically to help LGBTQ+ or BIPOC individuals

Several mental health technology providers offer therapy services rendered by AI/ML technology

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

<div>
 Cortica, a pediatric therapy provider, secured USD 80 million in equity funding. This was co-held by Morgan Health and Nexus NeuroTech Ventures, including a contribution from the existing investor Autism Impact Fund.
 The company will utilize these funds to broaden its operations throughout the country, improve its technology, and speed up the shift from fee-for-service to value-based contracts with health plans.
</div> Analyst QuickTake: 
 In <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/22391"> October 2023 </a> , Cortica secured USD 40 million in a Series D extension to expand its autism care model nationwide. The company has raised over USD 250 million in total funding to date.

Cortica

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