Startups
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Allara Snags $10M to Scale Its Platform for Women’s Chronic Hormonal Conditions
Allara raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by GV. The startup offers membership-based virtual services to treat women’s chronic hormonal conditions, such as PCOS and endometriosis. CEO Rachel Blank — former executive at Ro and investor at General Catalyst — founded the company partly due to the difficulty she experienced arriving at her own PCOS diagnosis.
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Artificial Intelligence, Consumer / Employer, Health Tech, Payers, Startups
11 HLTH Announcements You Don’t Want to Miss
This year’s HLTH conference brought a bevy of news announcements — from partnerships to new product features to acquisitions and more. In this list, MedCity News compiled short summaries for 11 of the conference’s most notable announcements.
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Healthcare VC Jumpstart Foundry Now Accepting Applications for Fall Funding
Early-stage healthcare innovation fund Jumpstart Foundry is accepting Fall funding applications through September 30th. Read on to find out why Jumpstart Foundry could be the missing piece in your startup’s journey to making a lasting difference in healthcare.
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Artificial Intelligence, Consumer / Employer, Health Tech, Hospitals, Patient Engagement, Startups
7 Hot Takes I Heard at HLTH
At HLTH 2023, I had dozens of conversations with providers, digital health investors, startup CEOs and other players in the healthcare industry. When I got home, I compiled seven refreshingly honest takes I heard from them while at the conference.
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Health Tech for Aging Population Punctuates HLTH 2023
Health tech to support care for seniors and track the progression of conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and heart failure were on display at HLTH 2023. The National Institute on Aging also added a startup boot camp leading up to HLTH.
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Pharma, Artificial Intelligence, BioPharma
Sanofi Adds Biologics to Its AI Ambitions, Striking Up R&D Alliance With BioMap
Formed by Baidu founder and CEO Robin Li, BioMap uses artificial intelligence technology to glean insight into proteins to guide biologic drug discovery. The startup is the latest company to join a growing list of Sanofi partners as the pharmaceutical giant continues investing in AI-enabled drug discovery.
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How Are Digital Health Investors Shifting Their Focus In 2023?
The digital health sector’s quarterly investment trends seem to be stabilizing in 2023, according to a new report from Rock Health. The report noted investors are shifting their focus away from pandemic-era categories like telehealth and pharmaceutical R&D catalysts — instead, they’re interested in startups creating products for disease treatment, the improvement of nonclinical workflows and the enablement of value-based care.
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Liquid Biopsy Startup Precede Sets Out to Make Precision Medicine More Precise
Precede Biosciences’ liquid biopsy platform yields insight into the genes and pathways in diseased tissue. Based on Dana-Farber Cancer Institute research, the startup aims to support biopharma drug R&D as it also develops the technology for clinical care applications.
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Investors Share Perspectives on 2023 Deals and Offer a Look at Emerging Areas of Interest
Investment trends will be a big theme at the HLTH event at the Las Vegas Convention Center October 8-11. In the runup to the conference, investors from Bessemer Venture Partners, Cleveland Clinic Innovations, Third Culture Capital and Intuitive Ventures offered their takes on 2023 investments.
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Health Tech, Pharmacy, Startups
Pharmacy Automation Startup Emerges From Stealth With 20+ Customers And $9M Raised
San Francisco-based Plenful emerged from stealth on Tuesday. The startup sells a workflow tool that automates manual and administrative workflows for pharmacy technicians. In addition to its launch out of stealth mode, the company also announced that it has closed a $9 million funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners and signed contracts with more than 20 customers.
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Avalyn’s New Twist on Older Lung Disease Drugs Attracts $175M for Clinical Trials
Avalyn Pharma aims to improve treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis with inhalable versions of two older oral drugs and it’s now headed for mid-stage testing backed by a Series C financing. Other recent biotech industry financings raised money for research in cancer, immunology, and rare genetic diseases.
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Startup Syntax Bio Leverages CRISPR to Transform Cell Therapy Manufacturing
Syntax Bio’s technology platform uses CRISPR to direct stem cells to become a desired cell type in a process that’s more scalable and less expensive than current methods. The startup is raising a Series A round of financing to further demonstrate the potential of its technology.
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Startup Magnet Biomedicine Attracts $50M to Expand Scope of Molecular Glue Drugs
Magnet Biomedicine builds on decades of molecular glue research from its scientific co-founder, Harvard University Professor Stuart Schreiber. The startup is developing drugs that take these glues beyond the biotech industry’s current focus on targeted protein degradation.
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Neuro Startup Arialys Raises $58M for Privilege of Tackling Brain Inflammation
Avalon BioVentures unveiled new portfolio company Arialys Therapeutics. The startup’s lead program, an antibody from Astellas Pharma, is a potential treatment for anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis (ANRE), a rare autoimmune inflammatory disorder.
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Health Wildcatters Takes The Wraps Off Its Latest Cohort of Healthcare Startups
The group of 10 startups in the accelerator have ambitions to improve early detection of lung cancer, eliminate contaminated needles, improve remote monitoring and provide new ways to treat head lice, among other goals.
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Artificial Intelligence, BioPharma
Recursion Vets Unveil Startup Noetik, Using AI to Unlock Tumor Biology
By revealing how tumors interact with immune cells, Noetik aims to identify new targets for new cancer drugs. The startup and its artificial intelligence-driven platform are supported by $14 million in seed financing.
