The Venture Codex

Participated · Series C · Oct 2022

Hazel Health provides school-based telehealth and teletherapy, partnering with school districts and health plans to deliver virtual pediatric care in school and at home. Its licensed providers deliver teletherapy and virtual care to over four million K-12 students regardless of ability to pay. The company aims to remove barriers to mental and physical health care by integrating services into the K-12 education system. UnitedHealthcare Community & State of Iowa announced a $1.5 million investment to help Hazel partner with Iowa school systems and build the technological infrastructure needed to bring mental health services to students. After the first phase of infrastructure building, Hazel therapists will begin providing services in August, with confirmed districts including Des Moines, Council Bluffs and Cedar Rapids. The Iowa expansion is expected to impact approximately 100,000 students in historically underserved and rural communities. Hazel Health delivers school-based telehealth services, partnering with school districts to provide mental and physical health care to students at school or at home. The company deploys a diverse, culturally competent provider network that works with parents and school staff to make care decisions. Hazel is led by CEO Josh Golomb and Chief Health Officer Dr. Travis Gayles. It has expanded to 14 states and is contracted to provide services to nearly 2.5 million students in more than 3,000 schools. The company says it consistently delivers improved access and quality of care. Hazel intends to use the new funding for continued product innovation and growth. Hazel Health delivers school-linked telemedicine and remote-care services to children, partnering with districts to provide on-site iPad telehealth access and a Hazel at Home service. Founded five years ago by Nick Woods, the company expanded rapidly after COVID-19 to support distance-learning students. It now works with districts responsible for nearly 1.5 million children, growing from about 300,000 pre-COVID. Enrollment and engagement metrics are strong: roughly 90% of eligible families have enrolled and 70% have engaged with services; nearly 40% of users report they don’t have a primary care physician. Hazel has been developing remote telemedicine applications to continue serving students during lockdowns and to expand statewide. The company intends to use new funding to expand its footprint across the U.S., invest in product capabilities to support larger volumes, and support families and district partners.

Participated · Equity · Sep 2021

Wayspring operates a longitudinal, value-based care model focused on people with substance use disorder, delivering medical, behavioral and social support through programs such as its SUD Home offering. The company combines targeted member outreach, strategic provider partnerships, community-based peer support, and direct clinical services to drive adherence to evidence-based medicine. Wayspring says this approach reduces healthcare waste and improves health outcomes for people with complex needs. The company raised a minority investment led by CVS Health Ventures; the amount of the deal was not disclosed. Existing investors including Valtruis (a portfolio company of Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe), HLM Venture Partners, and .406 Ventures participated in the round. Wayspring plans to use the funds to expand the reach of the SUD Home program within current states and into select new markets. Wayspring (formerly axialHealthcare) operates a full-risk medical home model for substance use disorder, leveraging data analytics to outreach to the highest-risk individuals. The company delivers high-touch, community-based peer support, behavioral health, and primary care and partners with existing provider networks to refer members to high-quality treatment. Wayspring facilitates care transitions and works to improve adherence to evidence-based medicine. Since launching its member-facing SUD management solutions with three health plans in 2020, the company has driven significant savings by reducing inpatient readmissions, hospital admissions and emergency department visits. The company is led by CEO Carter Paine and intends to scale its value-based care solution using the newly raised capital.

Participated · Equity · Sep 2021

Axial Healthcare, Inc. announced it raised $75 million in a funding round on September 28, 2021. The round was led by new investor Valtruis. Returning investor .406 Ventures participated in the transaction. Other participants included BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners, Sandbox Industries, Highmark Ventures, and Oak HC/FT Partners. New investors Centene Corporation, CareSource, and HLM Venture Partners also took part in the financing. axialHealthcare provides an end-to-end risk-to-recovery platform that leverages proprietary analytics to identify patients at risk, prevent escalation, and support appropriate treatment enrollment and adherence. The company expanded its scope from prevention and mitigation of opioid and polydrug-related safety concerns to include treatment conversion and long-term recovery support. Its model combines high-tech analytics with high-touch services: a clinical team assesses individual needs, connects patients with appropriate treatment, and deploys peer recovery support specialists for ongoing engagement. axialHealthcare says this approach aims to deliver measurable clinical and financial outcomes by managing cost of care while supporting sustained recovery. The company also launched a modernized brand identity to reflect its expanded services-based approach. Recently it closed $15 million in Series C equity financing to accelerate its expansion into the substance use disorder treatment and recovery sector. Axial Healthcare has built a suite of evidence-based pain management products for payers, providers, and patients. Its offerings include predictive analytics, a cloud-based provider decision-support platform with pain population analytics, provider dashboards and network performance monitoring, PharmD consultation, and the nation’s only mobile patient app for chronic pain. The company has assembled a large data repository of patient pain claims and outcomes and created evidence-based criteria for pain clinics. Axial partners with health insurers nationwide and has begun deploying its pain care offerings with industry-leading client partners. The company intends to use new funding to expand its pain management capabilities, innovate its platform, build out operational and clinical teams, and operationalize a substantial pipeline of clients. Its solutions aim to reduce opioid misuse and improve clinical and financial outcomes for those who insure care. Axial Healthcare provides coordinated pain management solutions that engage physicians, pain clinics and patients using big-data-driven analytics, clinical evidence and consumer support. Its platform comprises four interoperable components: axialAnalytics (patient and practitioner advanced analytics), axialPractitioner (pain care pathways, performance metrics and point-of-care MD support), axialNetwork (pain clinic Center of Pain Excellence and COPE network contracting) and axialConsumer (targeted consumer support for high-risk pain patients). Led by Chairman and CEO John J. Donahue, the company intends to expand deployment of these capabilities. It secured $8M in Series A financing to accelerate deployment of its suite of pain management capabilities. The round brings additional strategic support and board experience to the company through the participation of its investors. Axial Healthcare builds clinical decision-support tools for opioid management that leverage big data. Its platform analyzes prescription claims, medical claims, behavioral claims and eligibility data to predict outcomes and identify clinicians using best practices for treating pain. The company is developing additional products, including a tool to mine social media to improve predictive models and a patient app that lets patients report pain levels in real time. Axial raised $1.75M, reported via a Form D filing with the U.S. SEC, and the investment will be distributed in multiple tranches. An Axial analyst, Elizabeth Stringer, discussed the firm’s big-data approach on a MedCity News Google Hangout earlier this year. The company is based in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a Healthbox accelerator graduate.

Participated · Series D · May 2021

Vida Health delivers a full‑stack virtual chronic care platform that combines an AI‑personalized experience with human clinicians (therapists, coaches, dietitians, diabetes educators) via video, messaging, and digital content. The company treats mental and physical conditions together, applying cognitive behavioral science and machine learning to drive long‑term behavior change. Vida expanded a nationwide provider network by more than 400% and launched a complete Spanish experience while tripling revenue since the start of 2020. Its customers include large employers (Boeing, Visa, Cisco, eBay) and major health plans (Centene, Humana, Blue Cross Blue Shield plans). Vida reports more than 400,000 people with diabetes have access to its services and saw a 6000% increase in therapy sessions year over year. The company plans to scale its clinician network, deepen machine learning capabilities, broaden commercial efforts, and expand mental health and chronic‑disease offerings. Vida commercially launched a direct-to-consumer iPhone app offering app-based health and wellness coaching. The service connects users to nutritionists, physicians, diabetes educators, nurses and coaches across eight initial programs including weight loss, fitness, detox, stress reduction, cholesterol lowering, blood pressure lowering and diabetes prevention. Programs are priced at $15 per week and Vida says its coaches have experience with more than 20 health conditions. The company has begun three-month IRB clinical trials at MD Anderson Cancer Center and will soon begin one at Duke University Hospital; it is also working with Duke on a cardiac rehab program and has integrated MD Anderson recovery protocols for certain cancers. Vida plans to develop an Android app and is testing other distribution channels, including employer per-employee pricing and offerings to providers; insurance companies are on the roadmap. The company is led by CEO and founder Stephanie Tilenius, who previously worked at Kleiner Perkins, Google and eBay/PayPal.

Participated · Series D · May 2021

Vida Health offers a clinically validated virtual cardiometabolic care platform that combines prescriptive and behavioral therapies through an AI-powered personalized mobile app and a national network of providers. Its programs include video sessions, asynchronous messaging, and digital content to prevent and manage diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and related mental health conditions. Vida emphasizes a body-and-mind approach and says it was an early innovator—integrating Cognitive Behavioral Therapy into cardiometabolic care, launching a full Spanish intervention, and combining behavior change with GLP-1 prescribing. Some of America’s largest employers and health plans are customers, and the company markets its model on delivering clinical and financial outcomes for whole populations. Vida frames its mission as increasing access to innovative, lower-cost treatments to improve patient outcomes and address growing unmet needs in cardiometabolic disease, which affects roughly 40% of U.S. adults. The company intends to further scale and pursue growth opportunities in the rapidly expanding GLP-1 market, where demand is projected to reach $100 billion by 2030. Vida Health operates a virtual chronic care platform that combines an AI-powered, personalized app with video sessions, messaging, and a network of licensed clinicians, coaches, dietitians, and diabetes educators. The company focuses on integrated mental and physical care, with heavily used programs for Type 2 diabetes and mental health. Vida has more than tripled its revenue since the beginning of 2020 and expanded its clinician network by over 400%; more than 400,000 people with diabetes currently have access to Vida’s services. The company launched a complete, full-stack Spanish experience and reports a 6000% increase in therapy sessions last year, with multiple JMIR studies showing A1C reductions and improvements in depression/anxiety outcomes. Vida plans to use new funding to grow its clinician and coaching network, deepen machine-learning capabilities, broaden commercial efforts, and scale its nationwide mental health coaching program. Clients include employers such as Boeing, Visa, Cisco, and eBay, and large health plans including Centene, Humana, and Blue Cross Blue Shield plans. Vida Health is a virtual care platform built to treat multiple chronic health conditions simultaneously using machine learning alongside human health coaches and therapists. Launched in 2014 and led by CEO Stephanie Tilenius, the company delivers services via a mobile platform that supports prevention, management and reversal of conditions such as pre‑diabetes, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, depression and anxiety. The platform integrates deep individual expert care with data‑driven technology and remote monitoring. Vida sells its services to employers and health plans to deliver improved health outcomes and cost savings. In January 2020 the company raised $25M in funding led by Ally Bridge Group with participation from returning investors including AME Cloud Ventures, Aspect Ventures, Canvas Ventures, NGP Capital, Webb Investment Network and Workday Ventures. Vida says it will use the funds to expand operations and broaden its business reach. Vida Health is a personalized virtual care platform that combines digital therapeutic programs with health coaching and therapy delivered via mobile and online channels. The platform supports individuals in managing and reversing chronic physical and behavioral health conditions such as pre-diabetes, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, depression and anxiety. The company is led by founder and CEO Stephanie Tilenius and is based in San Francisco. Vida is deployed by Fortune 1000 employers and healthcare organizations, with customers including Avalon Bay, eBay, PayPal, Steelcase, FICO, Cisco, Visa, Veterans Affairs, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Aurora Health Care and Partners Healthcare. In June 2019 the company closed a $30M Series C and said it will use the funds to expand sales and marketing and to grow its national coaching and therapy network. Investors in the round included GuideWell Mutual Holding Corporation, Teladoc Health, Workday Ventures and existing backers Canvas, Aspect Ventures and NGP Capital. Vida Health offers a HIPAA-compliant, subscription-based app that pairs patients with a network of thousands of health coaches, from nutritionists to therapists. Its platform addresses more than 25 chronic conditions and integrates data from users' doctors, insurers, and up to 100 apps and devices (including MyFitnessPal, Garmin, Fitbit, Strava, and Apple Watch). Vida serves both direct-to-consumer users and enterprise customers, with clients that include Stanford, Duke University, MD Anderson Cancer Center, United Healthcare, and eBay. The company says “tens of thousands” of people have received coaching on the platform and that it has collected more than 7 million data points. Vida is paid by both employers and insurance companies, though the CEO declined to specify whether D2C or enterprise revenue is larger. The company aims to use its accumulated data to improve and expand its product effectiveness over time.