Reading between the lines of the latest HLTH announcements

Mario Aguilar covers technology in health care, including artificial intelligence, virtual reality, wearable devices, telehealth, and digital therapeutics. His stories explore how tech is changing the practice of health care and the business and policy challenges to realizing tech’s promise. He’s also the co-author of the free, twice weekly STAT Health Tech newsletter. You can reach Mario on Signal at mariojoze.13.

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Five things I’m seeing in HLTH announcements so far

As the HLTH conference in Las Vegas creeps ups, my inbox is lighting up with announcements. Here’s my first pass at making sense of it all by lumping announcements into categories. 

Mega raises: Oura, Town Hall

• Smart ring maker Oura announced its previously rumored $900 million fundraise valuing a company at about $11 billion. Is this a HLTH announcement or just coincidentally announced now? Interesting if the company really sees itself as lumped in with the health care nerds. It’s also interesting that Oura hasn’t gone public, which is the first thing CEO Tom Hale was asked about on CNBC. He gave, in my opinion, unsatisfactory answers about hiring and expansion and focusing on customers. He bragged about not needing to report quarterly, and I do wonder if the company’s quarterly numbers would really satisfy investors. In terms of projections, Hale said the company has sold about 5.5 million rings to date, and he  believes they’ll “sell another five in the next, you know, year; this category is exploding.”
• Town Hall Ventures, the investment company run by former CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt announced a $440 million new fund. The firm has invested in some companies we pay attention to including Ambience Healthcare, Qualified Health, Strive Health, and Thyme Care.

Other raises: Radiology, telehealth, remote care

• MD Integrations, a telehealth provider network that helps prop up other telehealth platforms, raised $77 million from Updata Partners and Denali Growth Partners.
• Brook.ai, maker of tech for remote patient care, raised a $28 million Series B round led by UMass Memorial Health and Morningside.
• Medmo, “an orchestration platform for radiology appointments,” announced a $15 million Series A round led by Covera Health.
• OneImaging, a company that facilitates access to radiology, announced $38 million led by Vy Capital.

M&A trends continue

Last week, I published a story about how we’re seeing an uptick in digital health M&A driven by big private equity companies building health care infrastructure rollups, as well as lots of little acquisitions of companies that probably don’t have a future as standalone businesses. We’ve already got new examples of both:

• Revenue cycle management company R1 acquired Phare Health, “a healthcare technology company building AI-native solutions for inpatient coding and clinical documentation improvement.”
• Cairns Health, maker of an “AI driven lifestyle assistant” that supports seniors and their caregivers, acquired Together by Renee, an app that uses a smartphone camera for health tracking tasks like capturing vitals or logging medication.

Adolescent mental health

My sources in the mental health world are noticing an uptick in activity around mental health companies that support young people, and we’ve seen a few notable examples.

• Marble Health raised $15.5 million Series A round led by Costanoa with participation from Town Hall Ventures and Khosla Ventures. “Marble will use the funding to expand access to critical mental health care in schools across the U.S. and grow its team to accelerate innovation and impact at scale.”
• Not exactly a HLTH announcement but Hazel Health, another youth mental health provider, just announced it acquired Little Otter, its second acquisition of the year. Behavioral Health Business reports the company has a new CEO, board member and Cityblock Health founding CEO Iyah Romm.

AI additions

With the rise of AI technology, everyone wants to share how they are putting the tech to work.

• SonderMind, a provider of insurance-covered virtual mental health care, detailed its latest “clinically-backed” AI tech to boost the efficiency of its operations. Earlier in the week, I covered Lyra Health’s launch of a “clinical grade” mental health chatbot. 
• Fast-moving AI platform Innovaccer announced an “AI-powered payer platform” called Galaxy to aid with risk adjustment and more. Innovaccer is best known for its work on the health system side.
• Hello Heart — a service that aims to prevent heart disease in people at risk by helping them manage their cholesterol, blood pressure, and more — added an AI assistant, called Nia.
• TytoCare, maker of a “home smart clinic” based a physical exam device announced a  “Smart Clinic Companion.”

Other news of note

• Mayo Clinic Platform announced a new crop of AI startups it will support in an accelerator program.

• Hims and Hers Health announced it launched a new menopause and perimenopause speciality, joining a growing army of companies offering such care.
• Former Intermountain Healthcare CEO Marc Harrison mysteriously vanished from his post atop General Catalyst’s HATCo , just as the company’s acquisition of health system Summa Health was nearing its close. According to Axios, he was “removed” following disagreements over strategy for the venture.

What we’re reading

• In Texas, ex-vegan restaurateurs put MAHA’s vision for farming to the test, STAT
• How North Carolina built manufacturing boomtowns for biotech, STAT