Today on Health in 2 Point 00, Jess and I cover all the deals that got overshadowed by the big news of Teladoc and Livongo’s merger. First up is Ginger, the mental health provider which raised $50 million in a D round bringing their total up to $120 million. Infermedica, an AI enabled symptom checker and triage tool, raised $10.25 million in a series A. Next, Xealth landed a $6 million investment from Cerner and LRVHealth, partnering with Cerner and bringing their digital health prescribing tool to Cerner in addition to its current integration with Epic. Finally SOC Telemed is going public through a “reverse” merger with Healthcare Merger Corp. —Matthew Holt
Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 141 | Teladoc Livongo Merger Special
Today, a special Health in 2 Point 00. Jessica DaMassa asks me about the biggest news in public digital health companies ever: this morning’s merger of Teladoc and Livongo. We discuss the deal, the implications for digital health, what’s next for Continuous Clinics, whether our T-Shirts will become a collectors item, and of course what about our book club on August 19! —Matthew Holt
The THCB Book Club!
By JESSICA DAMASSA & MATTHEW HOLT
We are launching a new THCB program! The THCB Book Club (TM) is going to be a discussion with leading health care authors, which will be released on the third Wednesday of every month.
We are kicking off with the new book from Hemant Teneja (VC at General Catalyst who has been writing many big checks lately) and Stephen Klasko (CEO at Jefferson Health System and one of the most unusual hospital system bosses in America). Their book is called UnHealthcare: A Manifesto for Health Assurance which is a how-to for creating a platform for a revolutionary future for healthcare, Taneja said. “Health assurance is an emerging category of consumer-centric, data-driven healthcare services that are designed to bend the cost curve of care and help us stay well.” Sitting in on the interview because we can’t get rid of him we will also have Glen Tullman from Livongo (Just kidding, Glen!). He will weigh in on how this connects with his new idea of Consumer Directed Virtual Care. Matthew may say something about the Continuous Clinic too, and Jessica will keep score of all the crises, Tsunamis, the many ways the health care is broken, and how many zingers Glen & Matthew get in on each other!
We want YOU to read the book in advance and email us questions or comments for us to ask the author(s) before the show. (We record a day or two in advance so please email us or put question in the comments here or on Twitter by the 17th).
Please go buy the book here (eVersion only $6!)
It should be a lot of fun and very educational! This will be up on THCB on August 19.
In September the author will be Jane Metcalfe with her 2020 book NEO.LIFE
Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 140 | Heal, Lemonaid, CVS & Sema4
Today on Health in 2 Point 00, Jess helps me celebrate my birthday Kylie Jenner-style. On Episode 140, Jess and I discuss Humana investing $100 million in Heal, Lemonaid raising $33 million in a Series B, CVS Caremark announcing 5 new companies in their digital health platform—4 of which are about weight loss, and perplexing health intelligence company Sema4 raising $121 million in a seed round. —Matthew Holt
THCB Spotlights: Paul Johnson, CEO of Lemonaid
Today on THCB Spotlights, Matthew sits down with Paul Johnson, the CEO of Lemonaid. Lemonaid just closed a $33 million Series B led by Olive Tree Ventures, expanding their direct-to-consumer online services which provide primary care visits as well as pharmacy and medication delivery to your home and launching into more chronic areas of care, such as hypertension, high cholesterol, asthma and type 2 diabetes. Why did they wind up with an Israel-focused lead investor in Olive Tree as a San Francisco-based company? Where is Lemonaid in terms of growth and revenue? And how is Lemonaid differentiating itself against some of the other chronic care management and telehealth companies? Find out how the company aims to provide care for patients holistically and be the first point of contact for patients in seeking healthcare.
Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 137| $10M in Seed Rounds, AI & Chatbots, and a New Meditation App?
Today on Episode 137 of Health in 2 Point 00, Jess questions if “Jack in the Bean Stalk” is actually abut how VCs are growing into the health tech space. Listen to Jess’s take on the comparison as she asks me about Sprout getting $10M in a seed round to grow its Autism platform, Gyant securing $13.6M to improve its AI & Chatbot functions for providers, Meditopia receiving $15M for its medication app, Caption Health raising $53M to help people conduct ultrasounds, and Kind Body raising $32M for its fertility care platform. Enjoy! — Matthew Holt
“Going Digital: Behavioral Health Tech Conference” Matthew Holt & Jessica DaMassa’s Long, Exhaustive & Boring Overview
Matthew Holt and Jessica DaMassa gave a talk at the “Going Digital: Behavioral Health Tech Conference” on June 17, 2020. They spoke about how technology is evolving the mental health space, along with their thoughts on where the future of the industry is headed.
Jess & Matthew first start off with their “Health in 2 Point 00” segment, discussing all of the funding deals in the mental health space, from Headspace to Mindstrong raising money in Q1, to Kaiser rolling out MyStrength to its members.
Then they jump into a deeper dive segment, where they discuss how the money is being distributed in the mental health space, and how startups are coming up with creative solutions to package their services. Some mental health companies are wrapping solutions into other digital health platforms that already manage chronic conditions, like Livongo & Omada, others are working to directly address and treat mental health issues, and some are developing digital therapeutic solutions to manage mental health problems. As this part of the industry grows, Matthew & Jess predict how the mental health tech space will change & develop with increasing demand, more investments, and a lot more innovative tools to serve the population’s needs.
Zoya Khan is the EIC of The Health Care Blog & a Strategy Manager at SMACK.health
Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 136 | Telepharmacy, a Mega-Merger, & DoorDash’s Deal with Walgreens
On Episode 136 of Health in 2 Point 00, Jess has 15 new deals to talk about (and its only been a day since the last episode!). Jess asks me about CityBlock getting $54M for their Series B round to provide primary care services to dual-eligible Medicare and Medicaid members in New York, Medly raising $100M & NowRx crowdsourcing $20M to grow their telepharmacy platforms, the mega-merger of Curavi, Carepointe, and U.S. Health Systems (now called Arkos Health) to develop out a care coordination platform, and DoorDash partnering with Walgreen to distribute non-prescription drugs. —Matthew Holt
Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 135 | Amazon’s primary care entry, UnitedHealth’s digital DPP & more
Today on Health in 2 Point 00, it’s the 4th shoe! On Episode 135, we’ve got Amazon’s entry into primary care through its pilot program with Crossover Health, UnitedHealth Group launching Level2, their own digital health diabetes prevention program, Health Catalyst acquiring healthfinch, Truepill raising $25 million and then investing in Ahead, a company which matches psychiatrists to patients. —Matthew Holt
Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 134 | Health Tech’s “PPP Blacklist”, Walgreens and VillageMD, & more
Today on Episode 134 of Health in 2 Point 00, Jess and I cover Livongo’s stock price swinging, Brian Dolan’s PPP “Black List” for Health Tech Startups, and Oak Street Health & GoHealth filing their S-1’s. We also get Matthew’s take on Walgreen’s deal with Village MD to become a primary care center, and Doctor on Demand closing a $75M round, bringing its total to $235M in funding —Matthew Holt
