These Are the Investors You Should Know if You’re Fundraising for Your Healthcare Startup
In the not-too-distant past, the digital health investment landscape presented a markedly different picture. When we first began tracking digital health funding in 2012 at Rock Health, we tallied $1.6 billion invested across 146 startups. Most tech VCs were hesitant to enter the space, and even healthcare-focused VCs exhibited a fair share of skepticism.
Fast forward to the peak of 2021 with nearly $30 billion invested into 738 deals, signifying an extraordinary surge in digital health funding. While just a decade ago it was hard to find investors who “got it”, it is now rare to encounter a venture capitalist who isn’t interested in this space.
I often get asked by healthcare founders: "Which investors should I talk to?" To make things a little easier for me—and hopefully for you too—I've put together this list of those I recommend.
Healthcare-specific investors
This section includes both healthcare-specific funds, as well as individual investors who exclusively focus on healthcare at funds that invest across multiple industries.
Oak HC/FT
Who: Annie Lamont
Check size: Early to growth
Portfolio includes: Devoted Health, Maven, Noom, CareBridge
Why I recommend them: They are commited to creating positive impact across the U.S. healthcare system, and understand the fundamentals driving healthcare (including complex policy changes).
Bessemer Venture Partners
Who: Steve Kraus
Check size: Early-stage to growth-stage
Portfolio includes: Folx, Ginger, Welltok, Hinge Health
Why I recommend them: Steve is an OG in healthcare, bringing extensive experience and deep domain expertise. His team has a proven ability to identify and nurture high-potential startups, providing not only capital but also strategic guidance, operational support, and access to their extensive network of industry connections.
GV
Who: Frédérique Dame
Check size: Seed to growth stage
Portfolio includes: Collective Health, 23andMe, Found, KindBody, TMRW
Why I recommend them: GV, backed by Alphabet Inc. (Google's parent company), possesses significant resources and industry influence. Frédérique brings extensive product experience to help founders build better experiences.
Define Ventures
Who: Lynne Chou O'Keefe
Check size: Early-stage
Portfolio includes: Found, hims, Tia
Why I recommend them: Lynne is a digital health veteran, bringing incredible expertise and influence to the companies she supports.
Lux Capital
Who: Josh Wolfe, Deena Shakir
Check size: Seed to growth stage
Portfolio includes: 23andMe, Benchling, Alife, Everly Health, Workit Health
Why I recommend them: Lux Capital is known for its investments in deep tech companies pushing the boundaries of science and technology. The Lux team brings a combination of scientific knowledge, business acumen, and a long-term vision, making them a great choice for founders working on cutting-edge ideas.
AMV
Who: Skip Fleshman
Check size: Seed to growth stage
Portfolio includes: Evidation, Reify, Freenome, Lark
Why I recommend them: Skip is an OG digital health investor with a vast knowledge of digital health and the stakeholders. Plus he was previously a fighter pilot, so you know he likes to take risks and accomplish the impossible!
7Wire Ventures
Who: Alyssa Jaffee
Check size: Early-stage investments
Portfolio includes: Folx, Livongo, Brightline
Why I recommend them: They provide tangible support to founders, including helping them prepare for sales discussions and actually joining key strategic sales meetings.
Flare Capital
Who: Dan Gebremedhin, Bill Geary
Check size: $1M-$8M seed to Series B
Portfolio includes: Eden Healtlh, Elektra Health, Cayaba Care
Why I recommend them: They are optimistic about digital health, and understand the time and hurdles it takes to succeed.
Venrock
Who: Bob Kocher, Bryan Roberts
Check size: Seed - Series B+
Portfolio includes: Included Health, Lyra Health, Virta, Aledade, Devoted Health
Why I recommend them: Venrock is good at what they do. I would absolutely want these savvy healthcare minds on my side.
Town Hall Ventures
Who: Andy Slavitt, Trevor Price
Check size: $2M to $20M
Portfolio includes: Cityblock Health, Solera Health, Eleanor Health, Plume
Why I recommend them: This fund specifically targets investments in healthcare companies focused on addressing the needs of vulnerable populations. Led by a team with deep expertise in healthcare policy, they provides capital, strategic guidance, and operational support to portfolio companies.
Menlo Ventures
Who: Greg Yap
Check size: Series A & B
Portfolio includes: Benchling, Cofactor Genomics, Ophelia Health, Particle Health
Why I recommend them: Greg is not afraid of big, messy healthcare problems. He’s also a former founder himself, so he gets what it’s like to be behind the wheel.
Rock Health
Who: Bill Evans
Check size: $500K
Portfolio include: Virta Health, Collective Health, Omada Health, Evidation
Why I recommend them: I started Rock Health in 2010, and helped lead deals (along with my partner Malay Gandhi) in the companies listed above. In 2016, we hired Bill Evans to run and grow the organization. I am really proud of the organization and community we built!
Omers Ventures
Who: Chrissy Farr
Check size: $500K
Portfolio include: Caraway, Oath, PeerWell
Why I recommend them: Chrissy has been a thought leader in digital health from the start. She gets this space and is an incredible supporter and champion of founders.
First Round
Who: Lauren DeVos
Check size: $1M-$5M
Portfolio include: Clover Health, Forward, Flatiron Health, Alma
Why I recommend them: While First Round is a tech VC, Lauren is their first hire dedicated to healthcare. They are known for providing a strong community for founders, and have a great reputation amongst other VCs.
Maverick Ventures
Who: Ambar Bhattacharyya, David Singer, Prateesh Maheshwari
Check size: Early to growth
Portfolio includes: Cityblock Health, Collective Medical Technologies, Devoted Health, hims & hers
Why I recommend them: They donate 1% of profits to the Maverick Capital Foundation which aims to meaningfully improve the lives of others, including those within our Bay Area community. Plus, they’re good investors!
Arkitekt Ventures
Who: Enke Bashllari
Check size: Early-stage
Portfolio includes: Handspring Health, Culina Health, Cofertility
Why I recommend them: Focused exclusively on health and bio, Arkitekt Ventures knows what it takes to win in healthcare, and has the patience to help founders scale.
RH Capital
Who: Elizabeth Bailey, Stasia Obremskey
Check size: $500K - $1.5M
Portfolio include: Nurx, Seven Starling, Contraline
Why I recommend them: This fund focuses on contraception, maternal health, and a broad range of other high-impact and underserved areas in women’s health. Plus, you can pitch them via their website.
Healthy Ventures
Who: Enmi Kendall
Check size: $1-3M
Portfolio include: Decent, EasyHealth, Olive
Why I recommend them: They don’t shy away from difficult, challenging problems.
111° West Capital
Who: Michael Matly, MD
Check size: $5-25M+
Portfolio include: Arine.io, Codoxo, Cherry
Why I recommend them: Founded by two MDs, they focus on the “scaling” stage of a digital health companies, to help get your business to to $150M+ of revenue.
Generalist VCs who get digital health
The following include tech investors who have made a significant commitment to digital health. It may not be their primary focus area, but they bring a ton of product, marketing, and strategic capabilities.
Coalition Operators
Who: Toyin Ajayi, Ashley Mayer, Lindsay Ullman
Check size: ~$250K
Portfolio includes: Summer Health, Journey Clinical, Little Otter, Cofertility
Why I recommend them: They bring recent and relevant experience to their founders. Toyin is the CEO of healthcare unicorn Cityblock, Ashley is a comms maven, and Lindsay is a product expert.
Union Square Ventures
Who: Rebecca Kaden
Check size: Seed to growth
Portfolio includes: Clue, Nurx, Modern Fertility, Alife
Why I recommend them: USV has a stellar reputation as a tech VC, and health and wellbeing is now part of their key investment thesis. Rebecca has led many of their recent healthcare investments, and is a brilliant thought partner to founders.
SevenSevenSix
Who: Alexis Ohanian, Katelin Holloway
Check size: Seed and beyond
Portfolio includes: Aavia, Anja, Papa, Poppyseed Health, Elektra Health
Why I recommend them: 776 has one of the biggest and broadest networks in tech; which has proven quite valuable for founders. They even have a dedicated Founder Outcomes Partner, who supports founder community-building both online and offline.
Cowboy Ventures
Who: Aileen Lee
Check size: $1-5M
Portfolio includes: Mon Ami, spruce, Aura
Why I recommend them: Aileen was an investor in my last startup, where she was the most value-add investor we worked with. Always asking “how can I help?”, she made key introductions, including helping us get on the shelves at Target.
Designer Fund
Who: Ben Blumenrose, Enrique Allen
Check size: ~$500K
Portfolio includes: Omada Health, Beaming Health, Ro, Heartbeat
Why I recommend them: They are big in using design to improve human health, and provide founders with monthly design help and a community of design leaders who you can call upon.
Initialized
Who: Parul Singh
Check size: Seed
Portfolio includes: Color, Ro, Cofertility
Why I recommend them: They help founders in every facet of their business, including product, go-to-market, recruiting, and PR and marketing.
Muse Capital
Who: Assia Grazioli-Venier, Rachel Springate
Check size: Seed
Portfolio includes: Eli Health, Cofertility, Mahmee, Midi, Noula, Oath
Why I recommend them: They make great investment partners for consumer-facing healthcare startups, especially those in women’s health.
Offline Ventures
Who: Brit Morin, Dave Morin, James Higa
Check size: Pre-seed through series A
Portfolio includes: Enara Health, Cofertility, KindBody, Bobbie
Why I recommend them: Incredible brand builders and people connectors, who care deeply about the founders they serve.
Felicis
Who: Sundeep Peechu, Victoria Treyger
Check size: $2-30M
Portfolio includes: Midi Health, Komodo Health, PicnicHealth, Cleo
Why I recommend them: They are truly founder friendly. Not only do they commit to vote their shares alongside founders, but Felicis was the first venture firm to commit 1% on top of every first check they write to be used for founder development: executive coaching, therapy, and more.
Springbank VC
Who: Elana Berkowitz, Jen Lee Koss, and Courtney Leimkuhler
Check size: Pre-seed through series A
Portfolio includes: Summer Health, Alife, Origin, Recover, Plume, Little Otter
Why I recommend them: Springbank is a mission-oriented VC investing in the infrastructure serving the long-overlooked needs of women and working families.
xFund
Who: Patrick Chung
Check size: $2-5M
Portfolio includes: 23andMe, Curebase, ImmuneID, Halo Neuroscience
Why I recommend them: Patrick goes to bat for his founders. He has served on the Board of Directors of 23andMe, since 2009, and knows how to help companies scale.
Harlem Capital
Who: Henri Pierre-Jacques, Jarrid Tingle
Check size: $1-3M
Portfolio includes: AllieHealth, AuntFlow, Moving Analytics, Wellory
Why I recommend them: They are serious about building an ecosystem of diverse founders, investors and companies. Plus, you can submit your pitch on their website.
General Catalyst
Who: Hemant Taneja, Chris Bischoff, Daryl Tol
Check size: $500K - $2M
Portfolio includes: Cityblock, Eleanor Health, Equip, Evvy, Oscar, Plume
Why I recommend them: They have partnered with 15 health systems to help portfolio companies accelerate the digital transformation of care.
Kindred Capital
Who: Leila Zegna
Check size: $1 - $1.5M
Portfolio includes: Gaia, Lottie, Shift Bioscience, Mojo
Why I recommend them: My favorite UK investor, Leila is an incredible partner to founders. Plus, every founder they back gets carry in the fund.
Greycroft
Who: Ellie Wheeler
Check size: $2-10M
Portfolio includes: Eden Health, Thirty Madison, Bright Health, ClosedLoop
Why I recommend them: Ellie is the investor you want on your side when navigating healthcare deals and M&A.
Kindred Ventures
Who: Steve Jang, Kanyi Maqubela
Check size: Early stage
Portfolio includes: Forward Health, Concieve, Carrot
Why I recommend them: They are great tech investors, and help founders building tech-enabled healthcare companies with product, branding, and hiring expertise.
Maveron
Who: David Wu, Anarghya Vardhana
Check size: Early-stage
Portfolio includes: Imperfect Foods, Thirty Madison, Modern Fertility, Alife
Why I recommend them: Maveron focuses on consumer-oriented startups. With a strong emphasis on brand-building and customer experience, Maveron brings expertise in consumer trends, marketing, and scaling D2C brands.
Forunner Ventures
Who: Kirsten Green
Check size: Seed through growth
Portfolio includes; Hims&Hers, Tally Health, REAL, Calibrate, Curology, Cleo
Why I recommend them: No one gets D2C branding and scaling better than Kirsten and the team at Forunner. Their track record speaks for itself!
Female Founders Fund
Who: Anu Duggal
Check size: Early-stage
Portfolio includes: Maven, Oula, Real, Base
Why I recommend them: Anu is a great connector. And their best-in-class events just for women founders help foster community and share knowledge.
Homebrew
Who: Satya Patel, Hunter Walk
Check size: $100k-$500k in seed/A/B
Portfolio includes: Carbon Health, Honor, Headway, Tia, Color
Why I recommend them: Hunter and Satya are known for being great investors and partners to founders.
Khosla Ventures
Who: Vinod Khosla
Check size: Early-stage to growth-stage investments
Portfolio includes: Oscar, Curai Health, Level, Headspace, Sword
Why I recommend them: Known for their bold investments in cutting-edge technologies and disruptive startups, Khosla Ventures brings a wealth of experience, a strong network, and a deep understanding of market trends.
SoGal Ventures
Who: Pocket Sun, Elizabeth Galbut
Check size: Early-stage
Portfolio includes: Everly Health, Parsley Health, Bold Health, Real
Why I recommend them: They focus on underrepresented founders, uncapitalized geographies, and underserved problems. And it’s easy to pitch them online.
Looking Glass
Who: Adam Besvinick
Check size: $300-500K
Portfolio includes: Therify, Frame, Millie
Why I recommend them: Adam supports mission-driven founders building enterprise- and consumer-facing companies across the themes of health, climate, and empowerment. He isn’t afraid to write the first check.
Portfolia
Who: Trish Costello
Check size: Early-stage
Portfolio includes: Maven, Future Family, Hey Jane, Rosy
Why I recommend them: Funds are backed and run by experts in the field. With specific funds for aging as well as women’s health, they aren’t afraid of spaces other VCs avoid.
Fifty Years VC
Who: Seth Bannon, Ela Madej
Check size: Early-stage
Portfolio includes: HealthLeap, BloomText, AbleHealth, Nurx
Why I recommend them: Fifty Years is backed by 44 founders of tech companies valued between $1B and $100B who want to help the next generation of founders change the world for the better.
Operator Partners
Who: Nat Turner, Zach Weinberg
Check size: Early-stage
Portfolio includes: Memora Health, Mural Health, Ophelia, Papa, Spring Health
Why I recommend them: Led by successful founders (Nat and Zach founded Flatiron Health - acquired by Roche for $2b), they use their experiences to support founders.
Kleiner Perkins
Who: Annie Case, Mamoon Hamid, John Doerr
Check size: Seed to growth
Portfolio includes: Future, Modern Health, Nurx, Spruce, Viz.ai
Why I recommend them: Kleiner Perkins brings deep industry knowledge, extensive networks, and a track record of identifying and nurturing groundbreaking startups.
Pear VC
Who: Vivien Ho
Check size: $500K - $3M
Portfolio includes: Viz.ai, IxLayer, Recora, Seven Starling, Valar Labs
Why I recommend them: Their in-house talent team helps with building your team, and Vivien personally helps with first customer intros.
Graham & Walker
Who: Leslie Feinzaig
Check size: $25k - $400K
Portfolio includes: Health in Her Hue, Seven Starling, Culina Health
Why I recommend them: A fund exclusively for women founders, Leslie’s team offers events and hands-on support to founders. I’d especially recommend them first-time, non-tech founders.
Matrix
Who: TJ Parker
Check size: Seed and Series A, origination to $10M
Portfolio includes: Ro, Carrot, Pomelo Care
Why I recommend them: TJ is a successful founder (PillPack) so he knows what it’s like to be in the trenches, and can give relevant strategic (and emotional) support.
Finding the best digital health VCs
Investing in digital health extends beyond giving startups cash; it requires a deep understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities within the sector.
Perhaps most importantly it requires patience.
Bessemer looked at the performance of over 100 digital health companies. They found that for median digital health companies, it takes roughly 10-11 years to reach $100 million in ARR, which is over three to four years longer than their cloud counterparts. It is no secret that healthcare businesses scale more slowly as they navigate compliance requirements, longer sales cycles, integrations and customizations, and a labyrinth of payers.
Finding investors who have seen it and who get it is important. You’ll want people on your cap table who can provide a wealth of industry knowledge, strategic insights, and a network of connections that can open doors to partnerships, collaborations, and ultimately, transformative growth.
Some people say picking an investor is like marriage, but I disagree. With marriage, you have to find everything in one person. I don’t know any founder that has just one investor. It’s possible to pull together your cap table with a diverse group of investors, perhaps some that really get product and can help recruit key engineering hires, and others who have deep health system relationships.
Wishing you the best on your fundraise!