The technology & trends driving healthcare investments

We’ve seen how COVID-19 has pushed our healthcare systems to the brink and what new innovation is required from our providers, payers, employers, and pharma sponsors. In this article, we look at the year a global pandemic changed everything and unpack the technology and trends driving healthcare investing. 

From our 2020 Predictions, we saw six out of the eight predictions begin to realize. Leading virtual care delivery platforms moved laterally through product expansions and acquisitions, resulting in new solutions and services for patient populations. Meanwhile, incumbents like Walmart and Amazon expanded their footprints in healthcare.

We also witnessed direct-to-consumer businesses reach “escape velocity,” powered by a burgeoning digital health technology stack, which led to notable and long-awaited milestones, such as the Good Rx IPO and the rise of DTC healthcare companies like HIMS and Ro. Finally, biopharma had a record year for innovation and exits, alongside which came a restored reputation for the industry.

As for what’s to come, we believe our predictions indicate where the healthcare industry is heading this year. Dive in.

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Stephen Curry’s investment firm, Penny Jar Capital, invests in Syndio: Syndio just announced a seven-figure investment from Penny Jar Capital, an early-stage investment firm anchored by two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry. “Syndio’s mission is to empower employers to eradicate unlawful pay disparities due to gender, race, and ethnicity and make ongoing compensation decisions informed by fairness and equity data,” Stephen Curry said. Read more

Claroty receives the largest investment ever made within the industrial cybersecurity sector: As the world grapples with an uptick in cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, Claroty secured a record $140 million Series D. David Cowan noted, “Since we first invested in Claroty in 2016, the company has continued to demonstrate that it has, without question, the best vision, team, and technology to address the unique challenges in the critical infrastructure security sector.” Congratulations to Yaniv Vardi, CEO of Claroty, and the whole team on this milestone!  Read more

TRM closes $14M Series A: TRM Labs, a pioneer in blockchain intelligence, announced it has closed a $14 million Series A. “The team at TRM Labs is building an extraordinary company that is going to be critically important in helping financial institutions safely transition to a new financial system for the digital age,” said Ethan Kurzweil, who has joined the TRM board. Congratulations to CEO Esteban Castaño and the whole team! Read more
 

Elliott Robinson joins Venture Forward’s board of directors: Venture Forward was created in 2020 to meet the growing needs of the venture capital industry as it relates to diversity, equity, and inclusion, along with research and historic preservation. Congratulations to Elliott for being appointed as a new member of Venture Forward’s board of directors! Read more

Job opportunity: Marketing Program Manager: Are you passionate about entrepreneurship, startups, and growing your career in marketing? As Marketing Program Manager at Bessemer, you’ll manage and execute a range of marketing programs, projects, and deliverables from start to finish. The projects you work on are foundational to many brand touchpoints and important to the marketing team’s day-to-day operations and processes: website, PR, events, social media, email, and content. Read more

When to segment your customer base for more precise pricing and packaging

In the early stages of building a startup, your customer base may be fairly homogenous. Or it might be so varied that you don’t even know what the repeatable use cases are. Either way, it’s too soon to definitively group your customers into discrete segments. How do you know when the time is right to start dividing your customers into segments?

When any of the following happen, you can be confident you’ve reached a crossroads:

• Your original one-size-fits-all product is splintering into distinct offerings for different firmographics or demographics.
• You’re leaving money on the table because larger customers are paying less than they’d be willing to.
• You’re losing smaller customers who would subscribe to a more accessible tier if it were available.
• Requests for pricing adjustments from your sales team are trending up.
• Legal and finance are spending an unreasonable amount of time modifying contracts. Read more.