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Volition Capital Bets on Digital Technology for Physician Practices
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By Brian Gormley, WSJ Pro
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Good day. Growth-equity investor Volition Capital has made a $25 million investment in a startup seeking to be the digital front door patients use when visiting their doctors.
Qure4u sells software that physician practices use to enable patients to schedule appointments online, fill out forms and questionnaires, conduct telehealth visits, and manage their care with their doctors between telehealth or in-person visits.
Chief Executive Monica Bolbjerg, a physician, said she founded the Bradenton, Fla.-based company because of her frustration with her lack of tools to interact with patients when they weren’t in the office.
“A big challenge for doctors is you do not see the patient all the time,” Dr. Bolbjerg said.
Patients can use Qure4u’s technology to provide health information to their doctor when they are at home. Its system can collect data from third-party devices that measure metrics such as blood pressure and blood sugar, according to Dr. Bolbjerg.
Startups developing digital-health tools can attempt to be best-of-breed in one application, such as scheduling appointments, or a comprehensive solution.
Volition Managing Partner Roger Hurwitz said he sees opportunity for more narrowly focused solutions, but that Volition was looking for a holistic system, like Qure4u’s, that could provide a compelling return-on-investment for doctors and user experience for patients.
And now on to the news...
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A patient visited an ophthalmologist in Renens, Switzerland, last year. Peppermint Venture Partners decided to focus its new fund on cardiology and ophthalmology partly because of unmet needs in these areas.
PHOTO: LAURENT GILLIERON/SHUTTERSTOCK
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New healthcare fund. Venture-capital firm Peppermint VenturePartners GmbH is raising a new venture fund to invest in technologies for patients with heart and eye problems.
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Berlin-based Peppermint Venture Partners is raising up to 100 million euros, the equivalent of $118 million, for the fund. In addition to investments in Europe the firm will consider startups in other areas, including the U.S.
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U.S. healthcare venture-capital fundraising reached $21.8 billion in the first half, up from $16.8 billion in all of 2020, according to Silicon Valley Bank. Healthcare venture firms raising new funds recently include Longitude Capital, which has just raised a $135 million fund to invest in later-stage companies.
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Peppermint Venture Partners is targeting cardiology and ophthalmology because of unmet needs in the sectors and the experience of its team, which includes Sophia Pathai, an ophthalmologist who recently joined the firm as a venture partner.
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$20.28 Billion
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The amount of venture capital that U.S. and European biopharmaceutical startups raised in the first half, according to Silicon Valley Bank.
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Cancer Drugmaker Turnstone Biologics Raises $80 Million
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Cancer therapeutics. Cancer-drug startup Turnstone Biologics Corp. has collected $80 million in new funding as venture-capital investment in oncology companies continues to climb.
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U.S. and European cancer drugmakers secured $6.9 billion in venture funding in the first half of this year, according to Silicon Valley Bank, after raising $6 billion in all of 2019 and $7.7 billion in all of last year.
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Innovation in fields such as immunotherapy is drawing venture investors to oncology. New York-based Turnstone is developing two types of immunotherapy that could be used individually or together, the company said.
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Its most advanced treatment is a virus designed to destroy cancers. U.S. regulators in 2015 approved the viral therapy Imlygic, an Amgen Inc. drug injected into melanoma tumors. Turnstone and other companies aim to extend viral treatments to more types of cancer.
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Funds
Anzu Partners, an investment firm that focuses on early-stage industrial and life science technology companies, said that its third venture fund has $130 million in commitments as part of its $300 million target. The fund’s investors include public and private institutions, single and multifamily offices, and individuals in the U.S. and abroad.
Longitude Capital, a healthcare venture capital firm, raised $135 million for Longitude Prime Fund, L.P. The new fund will be invested primarily in the crossover and initial public offering financings of selected companies from the firm’s existing portfolio. The firm last year closed its most recent core venture-capital fund at $585 million. Longitude has offices in Menlo Park, Calif., Boston and Greenwich, Conn.
People
Kenneth C. Frazier, Merck Executive Chairman and former CEO, will be joining New York City-based venture-capital firm General Catalyst in the newly created role of Chairman, Health Assurance Initiatives. The move is the latest in a series of steps General Catalyst has taken to double down on its effort to create a more equitable, affordable and effective healthcare system.
New York-based Humanity Health Inc. launched with a founding investment from Deerfield Management. The equity raise will fund Humanity’s development of a career acceleration and talent sourcing platform for underrepresented leaders and innovators in healthcare and life sciences.
2021 Women to Watch List
Since 2015, WSJ Pro and The Private Equity Analyst have published our annual Women to Watch list in recognition of the outstanding achievements of female dealmakers, fundraising professionals and limited partners across the private-equity and venture-capital industries. We are accepting nominations for this year’s list until Aug. 13. We will reveal this year’s list in early October. Submit your nomination here.
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Carbon Health, a San Francisco-based healthcare provider, said it has raised $350 million. The round was led by Blackstone’s Horizon platform. Participating investors include Atreides, Hudson Bay Capital, Intersect Capital, Fifth Wall, Lux Capital, Silver Lake Waterman, Dragoneer Investment Group and Brookfield Technology Partners. Individual investors include Salesforce co-founder and CTO Parker Harris, NBA players Klay Thompson and Khris Middleton.
Frontier Medicines Corp., a South San Francisco, Calif.-based company seeking to develop drugs against previously undruggable disease-causing targets, closed a $88.5 million Series B round. The financing was co-led by Woodline Partners and RA Capital Management, with equal participation by Deerfield Management Co. New investors, including Deep Track Capital and ArrowMark Partners, also participated, as did existing investors such as MPM Capital.
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The opioid crisis has claimed half a million lives in the U.S. and triggered more than 3,000 lawsuits. PHOTO: MARK LENNIHAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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