Cobalt Ventures
4900 Main Street Suite 620, Kansas City, Missouri, 64112, United States
Overview
Cobalt Ventures is the captive private equity subsidiary of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City. With a sole focus on healthcare, we invest in high-growth companies with capabilities that can be scaled and leveraged nationally across the payer universe.
- Total investments
- 11
- Lead investments
- 6
- Investments · 12mo
- 1
- Active investors
- 2
Investment portfolio
- Handspring Health
Participated · Series B · Jul 2026
Handspring Health operates a virtual mental health clinic focused on youth and young adults, employing clinicians trained in evidence-based modalities such as CBT, DBT and exposure therapy and providing mandatory ongoing clinical supervision and training. The company treats patients across a spectrum of acuity, including a complex care program for high-risk youth, and has treated more than 4,000 patients across nine states. Handspring reports revenue growth of more than 10x over the past two years and clinical outcomes including 93% of families reporting improvement at discharge, 81% of patients treated for anxiety showing clinically meaningful improvement, and 78% for depression. Over 95% of sessions are covered by insurance and the business is in-network with major commercial insurers like BlueCross BlueShield, Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare, Oscar and Optum. Handspring acquired Joon Care to expand services and in-network coverage in Washington State and plans to scale geographically, deepen payer partnerships, expand parent coaching and continue investing in its AI-enabled technology platform.
- Solera Health
Participated · Series E · Jan 2025
Solera Health operates the HALO platform, a marketplace that connects payers, employers, and individuals to clinically validated digital health applications and turnkey programs. The company plans to expand the Solera HALO platform by building the HALO Cloud to unite its network of point solutions and simplify integration of hundreds of digital health applications. Solera has recently added virtual specialty care and solutions targeting cardiometabolic conditions such as hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes prevention, and weight management. It also announced a strategic collaboration with professional services firm Aon to enable employers to deliver personalized health experiences and engage high-risk employees. Leadership changed when John Santelli, who joined in March 2024, transitioned from interim CEO to chief executive officer and intends to deepen integration into customers’ operations. Financially, Solera announced $40 million in new funding to support product expansion and operational scaling of its HALO technology and services. Solera Health is a Phoenix, AZ-based platform that supports an ecosystem of community and digital partners matching health plan members to chronic disease prevention and management, social determinants of health (SDOH) and behavioral health. Led by CEO Brenda Schmidt, the company serves as an integrated benefit network that connects patients, payers and physicians with community organizations and digital therapeutics providers. Solera consolidates fragmented programs and services into a single marketplace, allowing health plans and medical providers to increase consumer participation while lowering associated costs. The company raised $42M in Series C financing, bringing total funding to date to $72M. It intends to use the funds to address behavioral health and SDOH needs such as food insecurity, medically tailored meals, transportation, falls prevention and social isolation. Over the past 12 months Solera has expanded its network to support a broader array of lifestyle modification programs, including diabetes management, hypertension, stress, sleep, tobacco cessation and weight management. Solera Health provides integrated chronic disease prevention services that connect patients, payers and physicians with community organizations and digital therapeutics providers. It consolidates fragmented programs and services into one integrated network to increase consumer participation and lower associated costs for health plans and medical providers. Solera has built a national network of community organizations and digital DPPs including Weight Watchers, Lark, Retrofit and Noom. Since launch the company has grown to over 70 employees and has over 40 million covered lives under contract. Led by CEO Brenda Schmidt and based in Phoenix, AZ, Solera intends to use the new funding to expand its offering and business reach. The company has raised $30.3M in total to date. Solera Health is a technology-enabled personalized preventive health network that operates a marketplace connecting U.S. adults at risk for type 2 diabetes with CDC-recognized Diabetes Prevention Programs (DPPs). Led by CEO Brenda Schmidt and based in Phoenix, AZ, the company aggregates more than 850 digital, national, and community-based DPPs into one integrated network. Its national model was designed to consolidate fragmented programs and services to increase consumer access and participation while lowering associated costs for health plans and medical providers. Strategic partnerships include HealthSlate, Blue Mesa Health, Noom, Retrofit, Canary Health, Weight Watchers and organizations such as the Black Women Health Imperative. The company has raised $7M in total funding and recently closed a $4M Series A1 round. Solera will use the new funds to scale operations for the National DPP as a covered health benefit. Solera Health operates a proprietary SaaS platform that connects a national network of local community organizations and digital solutions to deliver chronic disease prevention programs. The platform supports administration and streamlining of National Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) referrals, reimbursement and payment management, and aggregation of data and reporting. Its services simplify enrollment and support consumer engagement and choice for DPP offerings led by the CDC. The company is led by founder and CEO Brenda Schmidt and is based in Phoenix, AZ. Solera positions itself as a technology-enabled integrator across local and digital program providers to increase access to prevention services. It plans to use recent funding to advance its technology platform and scale operations.
- Tonal
Led · Equity · Apr 2023
Tonal builds a connected weight‑training system and content for the at‑home fitness market. The company shifted away from rapid growth toward a measured path to profitability after pandemic‑era expansion. It laid off roughly 35% of staff (headcount then reported around 750) and worked through excess inventory and supply‑chain challenges. Tonal has narrowed marketing to bottom‑of‑funnel performance and is considering adjustments to its product roadmap and expanded brick‑and‑mortar retail presence; its system is currently available in five stores and some Nordstrom locations for demos. Founder Aly Orady moved from CEO to CTO and president Krystal Zell was promoted to CEO; Zell says the company is “really close” to adjusted EBITDA profitability after nine months of difficult choices. The company does not disclose manufacturing locations or the valuation for the new raise. Tonal builds an all-in-one smart home strength-training system that uses digital weights and streamed classes to replicate gym weight stations. Founded in March 2015 by Orady and headquartered in San Francisco, the company saw sales grow 800% from December 2019 to December 2020. Tonal has faced delivery delays of 10–12 weeks and has been ramping production, increasing headcount and air-shipping devices from Taiwan to the U.S. The company plans to spend its new capital on marketing and brand awareness, expand its catalog of streamed fitness classes, and scale operations and its supply chain. Tonal has also expanded its physical presence via a Nordstrom partnership (at least 40 locations) and expects 60 physical locations by the end of 2021. Management additions include a new COO, Chief Strategy Officer and CTO to support growth; leadership says an IPO is a long-term goal but offered no timeline. Tonal builds a connected home strength-training system that pairs a reflective display with resistance technology to approximate dumbbell- and barbell-style workouts. The company differentiates itself by focusing on strength training rather than only cardio or mirror-style fitness devices. Tonal has pursued partnerships and trials, including work with the Mayo Clinic on physical therapy studies with results expected early next year, and deployments at hotels and resorts such as Andaz Scottsdale, the Waldorf Astoria Boca Raton, and JW Marriott Anaheim. The product has attracted athlete investors and ambassadors who cite its use during COVID-19 lockdowns. The home-fitness market is increasingly crowded (notably Lululemon’s $500M acquisition of Mirror), but investor interest remains strong amid pandemic-driven demand. The company is Bay Area–based and has raised significant outside capital to scale distribution and trials. Tonal produces a wall-mounted strength-training machine that uses electromagnetism to simulate and control weight and delivers on-demand training through a connected software platform. The machine retails for $2,995 and the company offers a $49/month membership for personal training sessions, recommended programs and workouts. Since launching its product in 2018, Tonal reports virtually no returns and says customer care proactively works with members to ensure satisfaction. The company says the majority of customers are aged 30–55, evenly split by gender, and live in or near the top 10 U.S. metro markets. Tonal plans to expand software personalization, build new workout categories and enable fitness experiences when users travel. It is also expanding marketing and retail presence (currently a flagship San Francisco store and an upcoming Newport Beach pop-up) and hiring across hardware, software, design, video production and marketing. Tonal sells a wall-mounted strength-training system that uses electromagnetism to simulate and control weight and applies machine learning to adjust resistance. The device includes a built-in personal trainer and programming available for a $49/month membership. Tonal determines a user’s baseline strength with a 10-minute test and continuously monitors rep quality to dynamically adjust resistance during workouts. The unit mounts to your wall and retails for $2,995. CEO and founder Aly Orady demonstrated the product at Tonal’s San Francisco headquarters. The company positions itself alongside connected-home fitness startups like Peloton and Mirror.
- MedArrive
Led · Equity · Apr 2023
MedArrive provides a mobile-integrated care management platform that enables caregivers and payers to deliver home-based clinical services via a nationwide network of EMS providers. Its holistic care model and technology aim to build patient self-advocacy, reconnect individuals to primary care, and lower total cost of care for payers and providers. The platform supports clinical use cases including chronic condition management, transition care, readmission prevention, urgent care, immunizations, and palliative care. MedArrive also integrates with a growing ecosystem of specialized partners to bring virtual behavioral health, retinal screening, and maternity care into the home. Led by CEO Dan Trigub, the company has run home-health programs with Bright Health and several Centene plans, including Superior HealthPlan (Texas) and HealthNet (California). The company raised $8M in the most recent funding, bringing total capital raised to $40.5M, and intends to use the proceeds for continued business growth and expansion of health plan relationships. MedArrive operates a healthcare logistics and services platform that connects payers and providers to a national network of EMTs, paramedics, nurses, community health workers, and phlebotomists to deliver in-home care integrated with physician-led telemedicine. The platform supports dozens of clinical use cases including vaccinations, monoclonal antibody treatments, complex condition monitoring, transitional care, readmission prevention, medication administration, and HEDIS gap closure. Since its founding in December 2020, MedArrive has doubled its team, expanded into new states, and facilitated thousands of home visits; it also reports a national network of more than 50,000 field providers. The company has established partnerships with large health plans and entities including SCAN Health Plan, Clover Health, Bright HealthCare, Molina Healthcare, and the LA Department of Health, and is conducting home visits across California, Florida, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Texas. MedArrive says it will use new financing to expand its network to additional states, double its team of industry experts, and invest heavily in its product and platform to maximize impact. The company emphasizes improving access for underserved populations, better utilizing the EMS workforce, and generating cost savings for payers and providers. MedArrive operates a healthcare logistics and services platform that allows payers and providers to deliver in-home care by combining physician-led telemedicine with in-person visits from EMTs, nurses, community health workers and other field providers. The platform supports dozens of clinical use cases, including complex condition monitoring, transitional care, readmission prevention, vaccinations, and medication administration. MedArrive reports a national network of more than 50,000 highly skilled field providers and has facilitated home care visits in states including Florida, New Jersey and California. The company has tripled the size of its team recently and significantly upgraded its technology to support scaling and EHR integrations. MedArrive says it has administered nearly 1,000 COVID-19 vaccinations for SCAN Health Plan and other partners as part of a collaboration to serve homebound members. The company plans to use the new funding to build its team, scale its technology, and expand incorporation of its platform into additional home-based care programs with partners. MedArrive operates a care management platform that lets healthcare providers and payors extend services into patients' homes, aiming to scale access and reduce costs. The company taps EMS professionals (EMTs and paramedics) so they can leverage their full training, earn supplemental income, and diversify responsibilities. Patients access medical expertise from home while remaining within their existing health systems. MedArrive plans to continue building its platform and growing a team of industry experts to support expansion. The company is initially focused on the Florida market but intends to expand quickly and effectively across the country. The recent funding will support platform development, team growth, and expansion of healthcare provider partnerships.
- SpectrumAi
Participated · Series A · Mar 2023
SpectrumAi builds software to modernize Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) by capturing and measuring objective treatment and outcomes data. Its core products are Twyll, an ABA electronic health record, and Patterns, a network analytics platform designed to improve data capture and measurement. Both products were built from scratch and have been live in-market less than 18 months from the company’s launch. The company aims to increase supervisor efficiency and capacity and to enable providers to enter into value-based contracts with payors. SpectrumAi positions itself as the source of quality data capture and actionable insights to help payors, providers, patients and families receive better care. The recent financing is intended to accelerate adoption of its products and support a transition from fee-for-service to value-based contracting in ABA. SpectrumAi develops technology that captures objective quality and outcomes data for Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy to improve individual care and population-level insights. Its platform is designed to enable value-based contracting by producing standardized metrics that facilitate conversations among providers, payors, parents and the neurodiverse community. The data collection aims to surface care needs for underdiagnosed groups, including females and minorities with autism. The company positions its product as addressing variability in ABA quality and the current lack of objective data standards. SpectrumAi cites a national context of rising autism prevalence, widespread provider shortages (more than half of U.S. counties have zero supervisory BCBAs and 49 states miss per-capita benchmarks), and universal state mandates for ABA coverage that have driven demand. Leadership includes founder and CEO Ling Shao, co-founders Elizabeth Bigham and Chris Storer, and several healthcare executives and investor partners on the board.