Participated · Series B · Aug 2022

Digital Diagnostics is an AI diagnostics company focused on applying autonomous artificial intelligence to medical diagnosis. Its flagship product, IDx-DR, is an FDA De Novo cleared autonomous AI diagnostic system designed to detect diabetic retinopathy, including diabetic macular edema, at the point-of-care. The company raised $75M in a Series B round led by KKR. Proceeds will be used to accelerate the product roadmap, expand the company’s distribution footprint, and invest in sales and marketing. Leadership includes CEO John Bertrand, co-founder/president/COO Seth Rainford, and founder/executive chairman Dr. Michael D. Abramoff. The company is based in Coralville, Iowa and states its mission is to improve the quality, accessibility, equity, and affordability of global health care through technology. IDx develops clinically-aligned autonomous AI diagnostic algorithms that identify disease from medical images, and has an FDA-cleared system to detect diabetic retinopathy without clinician interpretation. The company's IDx-DR enables health care providers who are not normally involved in eye care to test for diabetic retinopathy during routine office visits. In June the solution was initiated into clinical practice at University of Iowa Health Care, marking the first time patients have received a medical diagnosis from an autonomous AI system in the United States. The company is working on implementations at several additional healthcare systems that plan to go live with IDx-DR in 2018. IDx is developing additional AI-based diagnostic systems for macular degeneration, glaucoma, Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular disease and stroke risk. It intends to use the newly raised funds to accelerate market adoption and further develop additional diagnostic systems for its AI platform.

Participated · Equity · Feb 2022

Memora Health is a San Francisco-based provider of an intelligent care enablement platform. Its system digitizes and automates clinical workflows, charging care teams by intelligently triaging patient-reported concerns and data to appropriate care team members and providing patients with proactive, two-way communication and support. The platform helps clinicians focus on practice while proactively engaging patients along complex care journeys. Memora partners with health systems, health plans, and digital health companies. Led by CEO Manav Sevak, the company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its business reach. Memora Health is a San Francisco-based technology platform that helps healthcare organizations digitize and automate care journeys for virtual care delivery and complex care management. It ingests existing clinical workflow data and converts it into cohesive messaging journeys that guide patients through care episodes and automates completion of simple follow-up tasks in the EHR. The platform integrates with EHRs, CRMs, and existing clinical and administrative workflows and trains AI on the clinical data generated during routine care. Memora has digitized clinical workflows with partners including the Mayo Clinic, Edward Elmhurst Health and Penn Medicine, supporting use cases from automated closing of care gaps to intelligent remote monitoring and proactive care coordination. Led by CEO Manav Sevak, the company plans to use the $40M financing to accelerate growth and expand operations and its business reach. Memora Health builds a proprietary, machine-learning driven platform that converts fragmented healthcare messaging and workflow data into smart modules to enable more continuous care delivery. The system integrates with electronic medical record and patient management systems to change how existing tools are used and to automate collection of rich, actionable clinical data outside episodic visits. Its platform supports patient communication, symptom triage, remote monitoring, evidence-based pathways, clinical documentation, and reimbursement workflows, aiming to create an always-learning health system around modern care delivery. The company has partnered with over 55 healthcare organizations, including the Mayo Clinic, Penn Medicine, Banner Health, and Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Led by CEO and co-founder Manav Sevak, Memora intends to use new funding to expand operations and broaden its business reach. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. Memora Health offers Felix, an SMS-based virtual assistant that automates post-discharge follow-ups and reminders (medication, prescriptions, glucose/weight checks) by accessing patients' electronic medical records and using a HIPAA-compliant SMS service. The platform onboards patients when they leave a hospital or care center and is free to patients; three hospitals and 10 private practices pay Memora Health a fee plus a per-patient cost. The company says it currently has more than 1,500 patients using its service across chronic disease and post-surgery care. Memora positions Felix as efficiency/optimization software rather than a chatbot and emphasizes automating existing follow-up workflows. Memora launched out of stealth and is graduating from Y Combinator’s Winter 2018 batch. The company was founded in June 2016 and had six employees at the time of the article.

Led · Seed · Jun 2021

Ready, Set, Food offers an early allergen introduction system designed to be added to breastmilk or formula to introduce common food allergens to infants. The company works with health systems and providers to educate families; Memorial Hermann has partnered with Ready, Set, Food since 2022 and provided pediatricians and nurses with informational materials. Through its Giving Back partnership with Memorial Hermann, the company has donated its early allergen introduction products to 2,000 low-income families. The announcement cites evidence from 23 clinical trials with more than 13,000 participants showing early allergen introduction can prevent up to 80% of food allergies. Ready, Set, Food and Memorial Hermann are planning a clinical trial to examine the link between eczema and food allergies, marking the first time both are being studied together according to the release. Ready, Set, Food! provides an organic, all-natural three-stage guided system that helps families introduce the top nine food allergens to babies. Each stage is pre-measured in mess-free packets with no added sugar or additives and can be mixed into breastmilk, formula or food depending on the stage. The company recently launched Stage 3, which offers continued exposure to peanut, egg and milk while introducing the other six allergens. Its patented system has been delivered to more than 20,000 families and is backed by thousands of pediatricians and allergists. Ready, Set, Food! intends to use the new funding to advance its complete early-allergen introduction system across the nine listed allergens. The company was also named an awardee in Johnson & Johnson Innovation’s Next in Naturals QuickFire Challenge and will receive $50k in grant funding to help advance research. Ready, Set, Food! offers an early allergen introduction system that delivers daily packets containing peanut, milk and egg to a baby’s bottle or food to help prevent food allergies. The product is designed for gentle, early introduction of common allergens. The company was founded in 2017 by a team of physicians and parents, including Dr. Jonathan Spergel and Dr. Gary Rachelefsky, and is led by CEO and co-founder Daniel Zakowski. Ready, Set, Food! is based in Los Angeles, CA. The company raised $3M in a second funding round and intends to use the funds to continue expanding its business reach. No operating metrics were disclosed in the article. Ready, Set, Food! offers a program and patent-pending approach designed to help parents introduce food allergens to infants (including while breast- or bottle-feeding) to prevent childhood food allergies. The company launched in May 2018 after more than a year of R&D and was founded by a team of physicians, medical experts, and parents motivated by real-world allergy experiences. Ready, Set, Food! says it has the support of over 300 pediatricians and has worked with more than 5,000 families to date. The startup reports its mission is to help prevent roughly 200,000 U.S. infants each year from developing life-threatening food allergies and cites an 80% prevention figure in an investor testimonial. Current plans include expanding an all-new corporate wellness program (adopted by family-minded employers like Snapchat) and running a Blue Shield pilot program aimed at insurance reimbursement. The company will use the newly raised funds to accelerate growth and scale these initiatives.

Led · Equity · May 2016

Smart Choice MRI operates outpatient MRI clinics that charge consumers $600 or less for scans, including radiologist interpretation. Led by CEO Rick Anderson, the company has expanded from two clinics to 17 locations across Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota, with two new facilities opening next month. It is accredited by the American College of Radiology and is in-network with major insurers including United Health Care, Anthem and Humana. The company plans to use the new funds to increase consumer adoption and to expand regionally and nationally over the next five years, including new locations in Colorado. To date, Smart Choice MRI has raised $22m in capital investment from hospital systems and strategic investors. The company is based in Chicago, Illinois. Smart Choice MRI is a Mequon, Wisconsin–headquartered imaging provider that charges an all-inclusive fee of $600 or less for every MRI. The company uses GE technology and has scans interpreted by sub-specialty, board-certified radiologists at the Cleveland Clinic. It is accredited by the American College of Radiology and is in-network with major insurers including UnitedHealthCare, Anthem, and Humana. Smart Choice operates six clinics in Wisconsin (Milwaukee, Sheboygan, Richfield, Waukesha, Kenosha, and Appleton) and three in the Chicago suburbs (Schaumburg, Glenview, and Skokie), with a downtown Chicago clinic scheduled to open in July. The company plans national expansion and will break ground on five new Chicago-area clinics and expand into Minneapolis beginning in the fall. Recent investments are funding that expansion, and Bill Kottmann will join Smart Choice MRI’s board to represent a system investor. Smart Choice MRI offers high-quality magnetic resonance imaging to patients for an all-inclusive fee of $600 or less, which covers the scan and interpretation by Cleveland Clinic radiologists. The company is accredited by the American College of Radiology and is in-network with major insurers including UnitedHealthcare, Anthem and Humana. Headquartered in Mequon, WI, Smart Choice MRI currently operates six Wisconsin clinics in Milwaukee, Sheboygan, Richfield, Waukesha, Kenosha and Appleton. The company announced an aggressive expansion plan for 2016, scheduling at least eight new clinics (including multiple Chicago-area sites and four in the Twin Cities) and detailed openings of additional Chicago-area locations with specific early-2016 dates. Smart Choice MRI positions itself as a consumer-driven, service-oriented imaging provider focused on lower out-of-pocket costs. The company will use new capital to support that planned clinic expansion. Smart Choice MRI provides Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) solutions to patients, offering scans for a fee of $600 or less that include the scan and interpretation by Cleveland Clinic radiologists. The company is accredited by the American College of Radiology and accepts major insurance programs including United Health Care, Anthem and Humana. It operates clinics in Milwaukee, Sheboygan, Richfield, Waukesha, Kenosha and Appleton. Smart Choice MRI raised $6.5M in growth capital in a round led by F Street Capital, LLC, which contributed $2.5M, alongside a core group of legacy and new investors. The company intends to use the funds to support national expansion, beginning with Chicago. Rick Anderson is the company's CEO.