Led · Equity · Jan 2020

HelpAround provides an omni-channel mobile platform (SMS, mobile web, and app) designed to simplify how specialty medication patients and their caregivers navigate therapy management. The platform creates a single, hyper-personalized point of access to support services, delivering alerts, reminders, actions, and connections to support communities. HelpAround's tools are aimed at improving adherence and preempting therapy drop-off by establishing ongoing mobile relationships between patients and pharmaceutical brands. The company was founded by health‑tech and behavioral targeting experts and positions its offering as a mobile concierge experience with messaging intelligence. Its mission is to make patients' lives easier by increasing awareness of and access to specialty support services. HelpAround is an Israeli digital patient-concierge platform that guides patients to resources and specialty therapies based on their needs and behaviors. The platform collects and analyzes patient data, offers mobile-enabled access, proactive responsiveness, segmentation and reporting, and can prompt interventions. IQVIA highlighted HelpAround’s use of passive data and AI/ML to detect when patients are not adherent to trial protocols and to enable site coordinators and HCPs to engage. The company began as an app connecting people with diabetes and previously raised $500,000 in 2014; PharmMedQuest invested in 2017 and entered a co-marketing agreement. HelpAround announced an initial $6 million closing of its founding round led by IQVIA, with participation from Windham Ventures and other existing investors; a final close is expected later in Q1 2020. The new capital will be used to grow its data science services to help patients find specialty therapies and clinical trials. HelpAround offers a mobile-first "Mobile Safety Net" that reveals nearby, empathetic members of the diabetes patient community to help resolve sudden needs (for example, finding blood glucose test strips) and to crowdsource local healthcare recommendations. Its patent-pending technology aggregates users from social graphs, other HelpAround members and public social media streams to facilitate real‑time connections. The platform is positioned as the first sharing-economy service for consumer health and is not intended to replace emergency care. HelpAround supports healthcare providers, brands and retailers launching identity-based and branded groups to engage patients at critical moments. At launch it includes features such as an EsTuDiabetes.org web Safety Net widget for non‑smartphone users and a 24/7 "Nurse on Call" phone service in partnership with TeamHealth. The app is available as a free download on Google Play and the iTunes App Store, is offered in English, Spanish, French and Hebrew, and the company said several food-allergy groups are already in beta.

Led · Series C · Dec 2019

BC Platforms provides genomic data discovery and analytics platforms that convert complex biological information collected in healthcare settings into actionable insights. Its platform harmonises and manages data from diverse biobanks and healthcare institutions, making it accessible to pharmaceutical and biotech companies to support research and development. In parallel, the company enables patient stratification toward targeted therapies to advance more personalized healthcare. The platform supports flexible data integration, secure analysis, and interpretation of molecular and clinical information. Led by CEO Tero Silvola, BC Platforms is expanding its R&D and commercial capabilities. The company is already present in the US, the UK, Finland, Switzerland, and Singapore. BC Platforms provides genomic data management and analysis solutions and has launched a global biobank network called BCRQUEST.COM to supply genomic and clinical cohort data for pharma and medical R&D. The company plans to use the $15M funding to expand its global network of clinical and genomics data and to deliver novel automated solutions to pharmaceutical companies. It announced a commercial collaboration with IQVIA to launch data-driven technologies that integrate complex clinical and genomic data. IQVIA’s investment includes a designee on BC Platforms’ board of directors. BC Platforms has partnerships with approximately 100 enterprise-level healthcare systems and biobanks across 25 countries and recently established an entity in Singapore to lead its Asian activities. The company was founded in 1997 from an MIT Whitehead project spinoff, is headquartered in Zurich, and maintains R&D in Espoo with sales and marketing in London, Boston, Vancouver and Singapore; Tero Silvola is CEO. BC Platforms provides a genomic data management platform that enables integration, analysis and interpretation of molecular and clinical information. The company’s core product serves academic and hospital research groups as well as pharmaceutical and agricultural companies. It currently provides solutions to over 50 international institutions in 19 countries. BC Platforms plans to use the new funding to launch technologies in 2017 that integrate complex clinical and genomic data and to grow its genomic data management software business worldwide. The company was founded in 1997 and is led by CEO Tero Silvola. BC Platforms has global operations with headquarters in Basel, R&D in Helsinki, and sales and marketing in London, Boston, and Vancouver.

Led · Series B · Jul 2019

Belong.Life develops a social network and patient navigation app aimed at cancer patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals. Its flagship product, Belong – Beating Cancer Together, is a free patient navigation app that helps users explore and manage treatment journeys and improve quality of life. The company is launching the Belong Patient Engagement Platform (PEP), an end-to-end solution for healthcare organizations with personalized and configurable patient engagement tools, navigation and management services. Founded in 2015 by Eliran Malki, Irad Deutsch and Ohad Rubin and based in New York City, Belong.Life will use new capital to advance and expand its Cancer Social Network and PEP. Financially, the company completed a $14M Series B led by IQVIA, with participation from The Group Ventures and other existing investors. The funding is intended to accelerate product development and expansion of its engagement and navigation offerings.

Led · Series C · Feb 2018

Cota is a New York-based company led by CEO Miruna Sasu that provides oncology real-world data (RWD) and analytics using technology-supported human data abstraction methods. Its core product is an RWD platform and services that organize complex, fragmented patient data to support cancer research and drug development. The company expanded its data platform to cover nearly 2 million cancer patient lives, quadrupling data access in two years and adding full genomic data. Cota is integrating emerging data types including clinicogenomics, social determinants of health, and sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). It launched Vantage, a product that gives subscribers real-time access to broad, curated datasets that are proactively refreshed. The company also introduced services to support life sciences companies with FDA and EMA drug submissions, integrating RWD in R&D, enabling HEOR, and informing market-access strategies. Cota received an investment from Deerfield Management and existing investors; the amount was not disclosed, and the funds will be used to further expand its RWD platform and services to drive more efficient and inclusive drug development. Cota builds real-world evidence and data analytics products powered by its patented Cota Nodal Address (CNA), a digital classification methodology developed by physicians and data scientists to precisely categorize patient factors, diseases and therapies. The company enriches medical records to create research-grade data and pairs those datasets with analysis, visualization and management tools. Its real-world evidence sets are used by life science companies to broaden clinical trial applicability, improve measured efficacies and lower trial costs. Cota serves healthcare providers, payers and life sciences customers and intends to scale those solutions across those segments. The company is led by CEO John Hervey and executive chairman Andrew Pecora, M.D. Financially, Cota completed a $40M Series C to support its scaling plans. Cota builds research‑grade, real‑world data and precision analytics to measure cancer treatment outcomes using its patented Cota Nodal Address (CNA) digital classification system. The CNA transforms prognostically significant variables into a digital code to precisely categorize patient factors, diseases, and therapies for benchmarking, research, and value‑based care. Its customers include pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers, and insurance companies, and it has partnerships with Novartis, Celgene, and data provider Foundation Medicine. The company has received strategic investments from Novartis, Celgene, Foundation Medicine, and Horizon Healthcare. Cota’s CEO, Eric Schultz, says the company has seen strong revenue growth and rapid adoption of its products across multiple markets. A. Dana Callow, Jr. of Boston Millennia Partners is joining Cota’s board to provide guidance across provider, payer, life sciences, and regulatory environments. COTA (Cancer Outcomes Tracking and Analysis) operates a cloud-based platform that aggregates cancer patient data and performs real-time genetic sorting of certain cancers while providing outcome tracking and reporting to physicians. The platform aims to help tailor therapy decisions—for example, identifying breast cancer subtypes where chemotherapy is unlikely to help—thereby potentially reducing unnecessary treatment and costs. COTA plans to use new funding to expand development of its platform and to hire biostatisticians, outcome analysts, data support, and sales and marketing staff. The company intends to launch its first commercial product with the raised capital. Prior to this Series A, COTA received a seed round from private sources and RCCA, one of the largest oncology groups in the country.