Good day. Harbor Health has gathered $130 million new venture capital on the premise that combining medical insurance with medical care will enable better medicine.

Harbor’s “payvider” model isn’t new: Kaiser Permanente is a well-known example. But proponents say increased use of this strategy would help stem rising medical costs. 

Austin, Texas-based Harbor sells insurance to employers. It also provides primary-care and various specialty services, such as cardiology, endocrinology and mental health.

Harbor Chief Executive Tony Miller and Dr. Clay Johnston, Harbor’s chief medical officer and the inaugural dean of the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School, co-founded Harbor in 2022.

Under a conventional, fragmented model, someone with knee pain might proceed immediately to knee-replacement surgery, the most-invasive and expensive option. But that patient may also have other conditions contributing to her misery, such as depression, Miller said.

Since Harbor combines primary care with other specialties, including mental health, it is easier for it to treat this co-existing condition than it would be under a fragmented system, Miller said. By better-managing the patient’s depression and pain, she might not need surgery, at least not right away.

As long as she follows Harbor’s care plan, based on evidence in the medical literature, she won’t face any out-of-pocket costs, even if that plan eventually leads to surgery, Miller said.

Harbor plans to use the Series B round, led by General Catalyst, 8VC and Alta Partners, to sell insurance to more employers, begin offering it to individuals and families in Texas and acquire additional medical practices.

And now on to the news...

New venture firm. Raisewell Ventures has amassed more than $35 million toward a debut fund targeting healthcare, climate technology and manufacturing and supply-chain startups. The Berkeley, Calif.-based firm is an unusual example of a venture fund led by a single general partner.

• Raisewell Founder and Managing Partner Jeep Kline grew up in Bangkok. In high school, Kline was prompted to study economics by the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which began in Thailand. She joined the World Bank as an economist in 2005, and later worked at Intel for seven years.
   
• Kline started Raisewell in September 2024 to invest in the U.S. and Southeast Asia and to bridge startups from each region to the other. A U.S. manufacturer, for example, may want to produce goods in Southeast Asia to avoid geopolitical concerns tied to making things in China, she said, adding that one of her criteria when evaluating U.S. startups is the companies’ potential to bring their products to Southeast Asia.
   
• One healthcare investment is in Fauna Bio, an Emeryville, Calif.-based startup that applies the genomics of hibernating animals to the search for treatments for human diseases. Kline is also considering an investment in a startup that uses robotics to aid surgery, she said.

Novartis agreed to buy Tourmaline Bio  in a roughly $1.4 billion-dollar deal that boosts its cardiovascular drug pipeline with access to the targeted therapy drug pacibekitug. The Swiss pharmaceutical company said Tuesday that it would offer Tourmaline Bio shareholders $48 a share, valuing the company at approximately $1.4 billion on a fully diluted basis. Tourmaline’s board has approved the deal. Tourmaline Bio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing pacibekitug which is a treatment option for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The drug is in advanced phase 2 trials and has the potential to combat residual inflammatory risk more effectively than current therapies, Novartis said.

Shares of online-payments provider Klarna jumped 30% at the open Wednesday in the Swedish firm’s NYSE debut, the latest sign that a long-suffering IPO market is alive and kicking. Klarna started trading at $52 early Wednesday afternoon, a day after its initial public offering price was set above the previously estimated range. Shares traded as high as $57.20 before closing up 15% at $45.82. The offering encountered strong demand that helped boost Klarna’s valuation to more than $17 billion after shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker KLAR.

Funds

Healthcare-focused investor Venture Investors Health Fund closed its seventh fund with $80 million in commitments.

People

Nuvig Therapeutics, a startup developing novel immunomodulatory therapeutics for patients with inflammatory autoimmune diseases, appointed David J. Woodhouse as chief executive officer. He was previously CEO at NGM Biopharmaceuticals.

Oncology research startup Okomera named Silvère Lucquin as chief executive officer. He was previously chief operating officer at Ganymed Robotics.

Resolution Therapeutics, a developer of novel regenerative macrophage therapies to treat inflammatory and fibrotic diseases, appointed Lucy Singah as chief financial officer, and Daniel Kennedy as chief business officer. Singah previously served as CFO at Echopoint Medical. Kennedy was vice president of business development at Immunocore.

Exits

GE HealthCare agreed to acquire icometrix, a provider of AI-powered brain imaging analysis for neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Strive Health, a Denver-based kidney-care startup, scored $300 million in Series D equity alongside $250 million in debt. New Enterprise Associates led the equity portion, which included participation from CVS Health Ventures, CapitalG, Redpoint Ventures and others. 

Odyssey Therapeutics, a Boston-based developer of treatments for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, closed a $213 million Series D round. All existing investors participated in the round, which saw additional support from new backers including Lightspeed Venture Partners and Jeito Capital.

NRG Therapeutics, a U.K.-based startup developing treatments for neurodegenerative disorders, closed a £50 million Series B round led by SV Health Investors’ Dementia Discovery Fund.

GEOH, an Indianapolis-based provider of practice management software and services for home care agencies, secured a growth investment of more than $30 million from Council Capital and affiliates.

Penguin Ai, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup that automates administrative tasks for the healthcare industry, secured $29.7 million in venture funding, including a $25 million Series A led by Greycroft. Additional investors included UPMC Enterprises, SemperVirens Venture Capital, Snowflake Ventures and ManchesterStory.

Optain Health, a Charlotte, N.C.-headquartered startup providing real-time, non-invasive detection of eye and systemic conditions, completed a $26 million Series A round led by Insight Partners.

Ridge Biotechnologies, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based precision medicine startup, emerged from stealth with $25 million in seed funding led by Sutter Hill Ventures.

TERN Group, a U.K.-based AI clinical workforce platform, collected $24 million in Series A funding. Notion Capital led the round, which included contributions from RTP Global, LocalGlobe, EQ2 Ventures and others.

Teton.ai, a Copenhagen-headquartered predictive healthcare intelligence provider focusing on senior care, landed $20 million in Series A funding led by Plural.

LightSpun, a Boston-based dental insurance administration platform, picked up $13 million in Series A funding. Brewer Lane Ventures led the investment, which included additional support from Virtue and Industry Ventures. Rohan Malhotra of Brewer Lane and Sean Doolan of Virtue will join the company’s board.

Pathwork, a San Francisco-based autonomous distribution platform for the life and health insurance market, was seeded with a $3.5 million investment led by Costanoa.

• The Billionaires Fueling the Quest for Longer Life
   
• Hims & Hers Health Expands Testosterone Offerings
   
• Health Insurance Costs for Businesses to Rise by Most in 15 Years
   
• Health Officials Hunt for Cases Connecting Covid Shot and Harm in Pregnant Women
   
• Trump Executive Action Cracks Down on Pharmaceutical Ads

• Autism has no single cause. Here’s how we know. (Scientific American)
   
• Moderna CEO responds to RFK Jr.’s crusade against the Covid-19 vaccine (Wired)
   
• U.S. drugmakers warn White House of chaos as Trump weighs curbs on China (New York Times)
   
• How the myth that nicotine causes cancer is hurting public health (STAT)

This newsletter was compiled by Zachary Cole and Brian Gormley. 

WSJ Pro Venture Capital is a premium service of The Wall Street Journal. We cover venture capital and the global startup ecosystem. Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The Team: Matthew Strozier, Yuliya Chernova, Brian Gormley and Marc Vartabedian.

Follow us on Twitter: @wsjvc