Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1284464
25 INNOVATION CU Anschutz Medical Campus' innovation fund secures $50M By Laura Dyrda C U Healthcare Innovation Fund secured $50 million in commit- ted capital to invest in early-stage healthcare companies, the organization announced July 7. e fund, which is affiliated with the Aurora-based University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, also partners with UCHealth, Children's Hospital Colorado and CU Medicine. e fund, which secured its maximum target of $50 million, has already invested in eight companies and aims to "aggressively" pursue new opportunities, according to a July 7 news release. "We have been exploring starting a fund of this kind for many years," said Donald Elliman Jr., chancellor of the University of Colorado An- schutz Medical Campus. "With the maturing of our campus innova- tion ecosystem led by CU Innovations, our success with several early stage ventures, and the proven collaboration between all of the CU Anschutz Medical Campus institutions, it was clear the time was right to scale a formal stand-alone fund." Future investments will focus on companies that have a business rela- tionship with its institutions and a majority will be digital health and IT ventures. e fund will also invest in therapeutics and medical devices developed on campus and licensed to outside entrepreneurial teams. e fund aims to develop a portfolio of companies with an initial product to leverage campus resources and meet the needs of providers as well as boost the patient experience and lower costs. e eight com- panies it currently invests in are: • BioIntelliSense, a company specializing in health monitoring and clinical intelligence • RxRevu, a prescription decision support company • ClinOne, a solution that digitizes clinical trials • AristaMD, an electronic consult platform • Amplifire, a training and education platform • Staq Pharma, a 503B pharmaceutical outsourcing facility • Q32 Bio, a therapeutic platform • IM erapeutics, a personalized medicine technology focused on autoimmune diseases n These 5 healthcare startups received millions in investments in the first half of 2020 By Katie Adams L arge health systems and venture capital firms na- tionwide are investing millions in startups whose products could bring critical innovation to health- care delivery. In March, Lyra Health closed a $75 million series C funding round. The Burlingame, Calif.-based company, a technolo- gy platform that allows employers to offer staff access to personalized mental health services, has now raised more than $150 million. It has garnered 1 million users since it was founded by former Facebook CFO David Ebersman in 2015, and now counts eBay, Uber and Genentech as cus- tomers. Lyra plans to use its funding to expand its technol- ogy and broaden its mental health provider network. The funding round was led by Menlo Park, Calif.-based venture capital firm IVP. Visby Medical raised $70 million in funding in April, which includes a contribution from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Visby Medical is a San Jose, Calif.-based healthcare tech- nology company that develops diagnostic products. It will use its funding to develop a device platform to make diag- nostics accurate, rapid and accessible. Columbus, Ohio-based Olive closed out a $51 million fund- ing round in March, led by Cambridge, Mass.-based ven- ture capital firm General Catalyst. Olive is a company that automates, monitors and improves repetitive, high-volume tasks and workflows using artificial intelligence. Founded in 2012, its AI-based model offers healthcare organizations products that aim to increase efficiency, improve patient care and lessen administrative error. Q32 Bio, a Cambridge, Mass.-based biotechnology com- pany, closed a $46 million series A funding round in May, which included investments from University of Colorado and Children's Hospital Colorado Center for Innovation. The startup focuses on restoring immune homeostasis by developing safer, more effective therapies that treat un- derlying immune dysregulation. Its work centers on tar- geting endogenous regulators in the innate and adaptive immune systems. In February, Quincy, Mass.-based IntelyCare closed its $45 million series B investment round, which involved funding from Kaiser Permanente Ventures. IntelyCare develops intelligent workforce management software for post-acute healthcare facilities. Its platform allows nurses and CNAs to pick up shifts directly from its mo- bile app. Founded in 2016, the company has more than 50 employees. n