Meet the Newest Health Entrepreneurs to Join the StartUp Health Platform
It’s a new decade for health innovation and the StartUp Health army is growing. The latest Health Transformers to join our portfolio are pushing boundaries in children’s and brain health, early cancer diagnosis, and are working to add 50 healthy years to every human life.
It’s the dawn of a new decade in health innovation and we’re kicking off 2020 with an exciting announcement: Our army is growing! Since 2011, StartUp Health has invested in over 310 innovative health companies, who in turn, have collectively raised more than $1.6B. In Q4 2019 alone, we welcomed 20 new startups into our portfolio. Over the next two weeks, as a part of the run-up and follow-up to our 2020 StartUp Health Festival (Jan 13–14 in San Francisco), we’ll be introducing the health entrepreneurs and innovators behind some of our newest companies.
As a part of their entrée into the StartUp Health family, they’ll be sharing their startup’s Health Moonshot and unique mission. If you’d like to learn more about their work, we invite you to send them a note via email or tune into the livestream of the 2020 StartUp Health Festival on startuphealth.com to hear from several of them. (Live stream starts at 10am on Jan 13 and 9am on Jan 14.)
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We are investing in a global army of Health Transformers to achieve 11 Health Moonshots, which we believe will improve the health and wellbeing of billions of people. Through this family of Health Moonshot funds, our plan is to invest whatever it takes over the next 30 years to support thousands of entrepreneurs who are reinventing the future of health. And not just any entrepreneurs. We invest in Health Transformers, the world’s best health innovators — people who share transformational mindset principles and a commitment to achieving health moonshots.
Alan Gale
Aimee Health
Health Moonshot: Longevity
Before entering the health innovation space, Gale was an early pioneer in public WiFi and grew one of the largest national networks, Deep Blue Communications. At Aimee Health he’s teamed up with nutritionists, machine learning techies and doctors to develop an AI-driven personal health concierge that evaluates an individual’s biology through biomarker testing in order to create physician-grade recommendations for vitamin supplements. After completing a short assessment in which customers note their primary health goal — stress management, focus, sleep, or energy — Aimee mails customers BioPacks, 30-day kits of personalized vitamins. Using image recognition technology, their digital app can analyze the nutritional content of a customer’s diet with a photograph, and provide food suggestions that compliment their supplement subscription.
Message Alan via email at aimeehealth@startuphealth.com.
Ashesh Patel
Ashana Health
Health Moonshot: Brain Health
After witnessing his grandfather’s difficult stroke recovery firsthand, Patel set out to help occupational therapists get the resources and tools they need to keep their patients engaged, motivated, and recovering. With Ashana Health, he is gamifying rehabilitation, which has been demonstrated to increase motivation among patients to complete their exercises. The company’s first product, the Dynawheel, is a gamified multi-functional device for upper-body rehabilitation, using range of motion, strengthening, and cognitive exercises. Movements and progress are quantified and tracked, providing physical, speech and occupational therapists with the data needed to ensure patients are successfully recovering at home, or through sessions in a therapist’s office — the platform is digital and cloud based so access to data is available irrespective of where the patient recovers. Ashana’s platform is used for a variety of symptoms and conditions as well as in pediatric and adult patients, including stroke, Alzheimer’s, Autism, Cerebral Palsy and Concussions.
Message Ashesh via email at ashanahealth@startuphealth.com.
Andrea Wilson Woods
Cancer University
Health Moonshot: End Cancer
Woods has long been a patient advocate. When she lost her 15-year-old sister Adrienne, whom she raised for seven years, to stage IV liver cancer, she started the nonprofit Blue Faery: The Adrienne Wilson Liver Cancer Association. At Cancer U, Woods is furthering her work in the cancer moonshot by empowering cancer patients and caregivers with the education they need to become advocates for themselves during their medical journey, improving outcomes and reducing costs as a result. Cancer U’s flagship course The Proactive Patient serves as a broad orientation to cancer. Members then go on to their Major courses based on their or their loved one’s cancer type. The Cancer U Thriver community is an online private forum where members can connect with each other. This year, the startup is launching a pilot program with a major NCI center.
Message Andrea via email at canceruniversity@startuphealth.com.
Vipin Pathak
Care24
Health Moonshot: Access to Care
Despite a growing senior population, home healthcare remains a green market in India, being served by standalone, small players. But as purchasing power grows in the country, demand for quality healthcare has increased significantly. Enter Pathak, CEO and founder of Care24. Founded in 2014, Care24 has helped more than 50,000 families heal at home in Mumbai and Delhi with its one-stop-shop home care platform and network of nurses, physiotherapists and health attendants. In 2019, Pathak’s company had 1,500 caregivers serving over 1,100 patients per day, with plans to launch services in five additional cities in India.
Message Vipin via email at care24@startuphealth.com.
Nikhil Pooviah & Simon Holland
Elly Health
Health Moonshot: Access to Care
Before Elly, Pooviah co-founded CancerAid, the #1 cancer app in the world. His work there earned him ‘Best Global Startup 2017’ from Sir Richard Branson and Steve Wozniak, and he also secured one of the largest deals on the TV show Shark Tank. Before Elly, Holland co-founded HotDoc, a patient engagement platform used by almost 5 million patients, and 40% of all family physicians in Australia. The pair have teamed up to create the world’s first empathetic audio companion for patients living with a chronic disease. Their Phase I clinical study in oncology showed that Elly significantly improved all patients’ quality of life by 10%, which is a result that no product or trial has ever achieved in such a short period
Message Nikhil and Simon via email at ellyhealth@startuphealth.com.
Abeer Ali, Ali Shahbaz & Hamza Shahbaz
HeartRite
Health Moonshot: Nutrition & Fitness
After working with leading healthcare systems in the US as a management consultant, Abeer was inspired to make a lasting change in the healthcare industry. The catalyst to this would come when he was diagnosed with hypertension and experienced first hand the gap in care and lack of resources to support his condition. Abeer then set out to build a solution that would not only help him, his family and friends, but others in need as well. After forming a founding team who also share a passion for the problem, Heartrite was established. Heartrite is on a mission to make chronic disease management accessible and engaging for the underserved patient population. The company’s platform allows patients to log and track their lifestyle metrics through a clinically integrated mobile experience, while unlocking new care delivery and reimbursement opportunities for physicians. The team at Heartrite believes that care shouldn’t start and end at the doctor’s office.
Message Abeer via email at heartrite@startuphealth.com.
Nicolas Rosencovich, Cristian Waitman & Emilio Goldenhersch
MindCotine
Health Moonshot: End Addiction
Rosencovich, Waitman and Goldenhersch help smokers kick the habit using MindCotine´s VR-based tobacco addiction therapy. The Argentina-natives developed the smoking cessation program using a series of VR experiences that imitate individual and social triggers for smoking, along with evidence-based treatments delivered in the MindCotine app that help smokers learn to acknowledge impulses and cope with them. VR experiences are meant to be used 10 minutes per day along with tools and resources, both analogical and digital, that the MindCotine Kit brings to help smokers deal with nicotine withdrawal symptoms. In early clinical trials with the University of Flores and the Research Laboratory in Neuroscience in Argentina, 33% of MindCotine users remained abstinent, including co-founder Cristian Waitman.
Message the MindCotine team via email at mindcotine@startuphealth.com.
Sina Chehrazi & Akash Magoon
Nayya
Health Moonshot: Access to Care
At Nayya, Chehrazi and Magoon have developed a real-time software visualization platform to track granular shifts in the demand for health plan offerings. By monitoring changes in the supply and demand for insurance plans, they are helping payers and health systems optimize their provider network at the community level, and helping employers choose the most suitable insurance for employees. Nayya scores the suitability of every major plan in the United States against micro-populations across the United States. Using population insights spanning 250 million Americans, they enable insurance companies and health systems to understand financial wellness and health gaps to proactively create the right mix of locations, providers, and products. Their aim? To prevent health and financial decline within neighborhood or employee groups.
Message Sina and Akash via email at nayyahealth@startuphealth.com.
Brandon McCutcheon, Jack Schneeman, & Logan Marcus, MD
Phraze
Health Moonshot: Cost to Zero
Phraze is an AI-driven medical scribe aimed at reducing the effort needed for medical documentation. The platform collects data from initial patient onboarding and then listens to patient:provider conversations during the appointment and creates the first draft of medical charting. While the provider still reviews the AI-generated notes to verify accuracy, Phraze reduces documentation time by almost 3 hours per day, helping to solve the massive problem of physician burnout. The Minnesota healthcare startup was co-founded by McCutcheon, MD, a Neurosurgery Resident at Mayo Clinic; Logan Marcus, MD, a former Radiation Oncology Resident at Stanford Health Care, and Jack Schneeman, Phraze’s Co-CEO. The company recently graduated from UnitedHealthcare Accelerator, powered by Techstars.
Message the Phraze team via email at phraze@startuphealth.com.
Dr. Jimmy Feng
Phyxable
Health Moonshot: Access to Care
Dr. Feng is a serial entrepreneur in the digital health space. His latest venture, Phyxable is a self-help video app that empowers patients to fix their own injuries; taught by world-class practitioners and fitness experts. In typical brick-and-mortar clinical treatments, 70% of patients drop off before completing their rehab program. By helping patients better adhere to rehab programs from home through their gamified video solutions, Phyxable empowers patients to heal anywhere, anytime. On average, the platform reduces treatment drop-off by 40%. Their secure video platform connects patients directly with practitioners who are covered by insurance. The startup is a culmination of Dr. Feng’s life work across technology, health and wellness disciplines. In addition to a Chiropractic degree, Dr. Feng is also a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist (NSCA) and Medical Acupuncturist, and has directed medical teams for world championships, professional and Olympic Level sporting events.
Message Jimmy at phyxable@startuphealth.com.
Everardo Barojas
Prescrypto
Health Moonshot: Access to Care
A mechatronics engineer by trade, Barojas designed, coded and deployed the first iteration of Prescrypto within six weeks, processing 1,000 electronic prescriptions in the first month. “With that traction, we secured our pre-seed capital,” including $100,000 from UNICEF. Prescrypto provides a blockchain-based infrastructure that physicians, patients and others in the health care system in LATAM can use to pass sensitive information, like a history of medications, back and forth. It has more than 2,500 physicians in its network and its app, RexChain, has been the conduit for over 200,000 prescriptions, at a rate of 10,000 new prescriptions per month. In 2019, Prescrypto was named Blockchain Impact Award Winner by Blockchain in Healthcare Today.
Message Everardo via email at prescrypto@startuphealth.com.
Jo Bhakdi
Quantgene
Health Moonshot: End Cancer
Bhakdi’s work at Quantgene falls within the new field of DNA-centric approaches to cancer detection. By using machine learning to analyze mutations in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) — a type of DNA that is expelled into the bloodstream from cells that have died or been killed — Quantgene can determine a person’s genetic disposition to cancer, whether they have cancer and in what part of the body. This is in contrast to hereditary testing, which evaluates whether a person has a hereditary variant in their DNA. Bhakdi’s tech will allow for greater flexibility and versatility in complex, cancer pattern-detection than neural networks, which currently attract most of the attention in cancer care. “Every time we stray away from neural networks we see huge advances,” says Bhakdi.
Message Jo via email at quantgene@startuphealth.com.
Fred Nazem & Rishi Madhok, MD
Rejuvenan
Health Moonshot: Longevity
Nazem, a health tech VC since the 1970s, built a reputation as a turnaround specialist after his successful reorg of Oxford Health Plans, which later sold to United Healthcare for more than $6B. In 2019, Rejevenan acquired BitMed, a StartUp Health company, and Nazem joined forces with Madhok, BitMed’s founder, to deliver wellness and medical care support wherever and whenever it’s needed. Their digital platform processes individual biomarkers and generates preventative health plans for patients, who in turn, can manage their plans via telehealth consultations with Rejuvenan’s ecosystem of board certified physicians and nutritionists. Plans cost $10/month, and through a rewards program powered by the Rejuvenan’s token, RXP, and blockchain patients earn tokens that can be used toward wellness checks, urgent care visits, and disease management.
Message Fred and Rishi via email at rejuvenan@startuphealth.com.
Missy Lavender
Renalis
Health Moonshot: Access to Care
At Renalis, a Chicago-based healthtech startup, Lavender is developing a suite of digital pelvic health platforms to improve the patient experience and the efficiency of patient and provider interaction. Renalis looks to launch its first two products — for fibroids and endometriosis, and overactive bladder (OAB) — in Q3 2020. With the OAB platform, Renalis will seek FDA approval and reimbursement, creating the first digital therapeutic in pelvic health. Prior to launching Renalis, Lavender founded Below Your Belt (BYB), a non-profit arm of Renalis that uses education and engagement to enable all persons to achieve optimal pelvic health without the limitations of painful, embarrassing, and costly conditions such as endometriosis, fibroids, PCOS, and bladder leakage. “We have been breaking barriers and creating groundbreaking programs through our nonprofit for 16 years and now we are excited to change the standard of care in pelvic health,” says Lavender. In 2019, Lavender was selected to serve on the National Advisory Child Health and Human Development Council of the National Institutes of Health, effective through 2023.
Message Missy via email at renalis@startuphealth.com.
Tanya Yarkoni
Rezilient
Health Moonshot: Mental Health & Happiness
Yarkoni is the mother of a child with special needs who requires 24/7 care. “I believe caregiving is the ultimate opportunity to build self-awareness, change your mindset and become a better version of yourself,” she says. In pursuit of her personal health moonshot, Yarkoni launched Rezilient, a personalized, behavior change technology platform for family caregivers of people with chronic illnesses and disabilities . The science-based coaching app monitors and assesses physiological and self-reported parameters, learns lifestyle preferences and predicts caregiver burden. Trained coaches keep caregivers on track following our program, in order to provide better patient care, maintain work productivity and avoid the long-term physical and emotional decline associated with caregiving.
Message Tanya via email at rezilient@startuphealth.com.
Jessica Corbin & Kristi Britto
Revita5
Health Moonshot: Longevity
At Revita5, Corbin and Britto are using your employer as a conduit for serving up data-backed lifestyle recommendations that manage stress and burnout. Revita5 employee-users take a 55-second assessment in the morning with an armband that comes with the app subscription, and receive a Heart Rate Variability Score (HRV). Scores are aggregated in order to provide a group health analysis to employers, along with recommended lifestyle interventions that address health challenges related to focus, energy, stress and sleep. “Now employers can be scientifically certain where the collective resilience is at on the stress spectrum, and what interventions actually move the needle,” says Corbin.
Message Jessica and Kristi via email at revita5@startuphealth.com.
Allison Kasirer
Robyn
Health Moonshot: Women’s Health
During Kasirer’s fertility journey, she remembers some really tough Mother’s Days. “You are surrounded by pregnant bellies, pictures of other peoples’ babies, and reminder after reminder that you are not yet ‘in the club,’” she says. At Robyn , she’s committed to destigmatizing and democratizing one’s right to have a family. Her platform serves as a digital companion in a woman’s journey to parenthood and provides access to a network of providers in fields like nutrition, acupuncture, and mental health, while offering a community of support where users can share, learn, and gain accountability for healthy choices during pre-pregnancy and beyond.
Message Allison via email at robyn@startuphealth.com.
Danny & Jess Hui
Sameview
Health Moonshot: Children’s Health
The Hui’s youngest son, Monty, was born with a complex disability which required care coordination with a team of over 30 different professionals. “We met families struggling with this same issue. sameview was born from our desire to provide others with the disability support and interventions we knew were needed to achieve each family’s goals,” says Danny. The online platform streamlines care coordination, providing one place to connect and share information between therapists, educators, support workers, and families. Prior to founding sameview, Danny developed the emergency management capabilities and processes used today by Australia’s leading power distribution provider.
Email Danny and Jess via email at sameview@startuphealth.com.
Jason Lehmbeck
Special X
Health Moonshot: Children’s Health
Lehmbeck’s son, Noah, has a genetic disorder that introduced the family to the challenges of navigating the world of disabilities. At Special X, Lehmbeck and his co-founder Zimmerman are building the kind of digital health platform that his family would want, one that connects parents raising children with disabilities to a curated network of health and education resources. The heart of the platform is a community of Care Navigators who help these parents access the best care possible and build searchable, sharable digital health and education records for their kids. Prior to launching Special X, Lehmbeck co-founded the digital marketing startup DataPop (acquired by Criteo) with Zimmerman and was the VP of Emerging Ad Products at Yahoo!.
Message Jason via email at specialx@startuphealth.com.
Amir Bozorgzadeh
Virtuleap
Health Moonshot: Mental Health & Happiness
At Virtuleap, Bozorgzadeh, CEO and co-founder of the startup, along with his co-founder and CTO Hossein Jalali, are on a mission to create a new digital health marker for the early detection of cognitive diseases, such as dementia, by mining the big data of VR gameplay patterns over time. Located in Lisbon with a US-based parent company, Virtuleap’s direct-to-consumer brain training app, Enhance, offers a daily cognitive workout of short, intense and fun games designed to help increase attention and concentration levels. They’ve also composed music tracks to go along with the activities, which produce increased levels of focus. The app’s accompanying data dashboard allows caregivers, companies, and organizations to monitor and manage the performance of their users. In 2019, Virtuleap was chosen as the “breakthrough startup” by the venture arm of Web Summit.
Message Amir via email at virtuleap@startuphealth.com.
Shireen Abdullah, PMP
Yumlish
Health Moonshot: Nutrition & Fitness
After a diagnosis, when her doctor told her to “eat healthy,” Shireen struggled to understand what that looked like for her personally, and felt powerless. With her AI-powered digital health company, Yumlish, she’s changing the narrative for type 2 diabetes by providing nutrition therapy that addresses socioeconomic and cultural factors to dietary adherence. By incorporating social determinants of health and cultural considerations, Yumlish creates truly personalized nutrition that empowers patients and impacts health outcomes.
Message Shireen via email at yumlish@startuphealth.com.
Join us for the 2020 StartUp Health Festival
Next week, 2,000 of the world’s leading health innovators, entrepreneurs, investors and industry leaders will convene in San Francisco for the 2020 StartUp Health Festival. Tune in to startuphealth.com Jan 13–14 for a livestream of the Festival experience.
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