Optum Ventures

Optum Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2017, located in Boston, Massachusetts, with an additional office in London. It focuses on investing in healthcare and digital health companies, primarily targeting Series A and B funding rounds. The firm seeks to partner with exceptional teams that leverage data-driven technologies and services to disrupt traditional healthcare models. By investing in innovative companies with transformative visions, Optum Ventures aims to improve healthcare accessibility and quality. Portfolio companies benefit from Optum's extensive data resources and industry expertise, which facilitate connections with key healthcare players, helping to accelerate growth and drive meaningful change in the sector.

Kaylan Alderson

Partner and Head of Partnerships Team

Vijay Barathan

Partner

Tom Capon

Principal

Richie Chaikof

Principal

Nicole Chen

Principal and Chief of Staff

Mike Cunningham

Partner

Benjamin Freeberg

Vice President

Joe Gentile

Vice President

Courtney Good

Associate

Mazen Hammad

Vice President

Austin Martin

Vice President

George Pantazopoulos

Principal

Stephen Renfro

Partner and Chief Operations Officer

Jon Sklaroff

Principal

Laura Veroneau

Managing Partner

Past deals in Personal Health

Greater Good Health

Series A in 2022
Greater Good Health is a healthcare organization dedicated to enhancing access to primary care through a holistic, value-based approach. The company operates a nurse practitioner-powered platform that focuses on empowering nurse practitioners (NPs) by providing them with a comprehensive suite of resources, including a digital community, an education portal, and wellness resources aimed at preventing burnout. Greater Good Health also develops its own primary care clinics and offers technology tools for scheduling, analytics, and point-of-care support. By equipping NPs with these tools and resources, the organization enables them to manage complex patient populations effectively, ultimately improving health outcomes and reducing costs for customers.

Loop

Series B in 2022
Loop Health is a healthcare provider based in Pune, India, founded in 2018. The company offers a range of services including acute and urgent care, chronic condition management, women's health, health coaching, and preventive care. Loop Health aims to simplify the healthcare experience by connecting patients with family physicians, specialists, and hospitals, facilitating access to major medical treatments. Their team of Loop Coordinators assists patients in finding appropriate doctors, comparing treatment costs, obtaining second opinions, and managing admission procedures, thereby alleviating the stress associated with healthcare decisions. Additionally, Loop Health features a virtual medical practice that supports employees and their families, allowing them to consult with healthcare experts and medical advisors without delay, ultimately promoting better health management and cost-effectiveness.

Duos

Series A in 2022
Duos is a company founded in 2020 and headquartered in New York, focused on enhancing the independence of older adults through a personal assistance platform. The platform offers a variety of services that support the elderly in daily activities such as transportation, errands, shopping, and nutrition. By fostering trusted relationships and facilitating community engagement, Duos enables older individuals to live fulfilling lives at home while maximizing their autonomy. The company's emphasis on technology and community connections aims to create a supportive environment for seniors, ensuring they receive the assistance needed to maintain their independence.

Vira Health

Series A in 2022
Vira is a digital health company focused on improving long-term health for women. We do this by addressing female-specific conditions and improving the collection and use of female data in healthcare.

Somatus

Series E in 2022
Somatus is a healthcare company that partners with health plans, health systems, and nephrology, and primary care groups. It provides integrated care for patients with or at risk of developing kidney disease. Somatus' is vertically integrated clinical services and technology delay or prevent disease progression, improve quality and care coordination, and increase the use of home dialysis modalities and rates of kidney transplantation. The company is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, and founded by a team of world-class healthcare operators, successful entrepreneurs, and leading clinicians treating kidney disease.

Equip Health

Series B in 2022
Equip is a virtual program helping families recover from eating disorders at home with comprehensive, gold-standard care created by experts in the field and people in recovery. Equip’s five person care teams include dieticians, physicians, therapists, and mentors who deliver wrap-around support to provide families progress and lasting recovery. Kristina Saffran and Erin Parks co-founded the company in San Diego, California in 2019.

mPulse.

Venture Round in 2022
mPulse Mobile, Inc. specializes in healthcare communication technology, focusing on enhancing consumer health and wellness through its cloud-based mobile messaging platform. This intelligent platform features pre-configured message workflows designed to address issues such as missed appointments, medication adherence, and chronic disease management. The company's solutions cater to a range of healthcare needs, including Medicaid preventive care, medication adherence, chronic condition management, and optimizing health plan experiences. With over a decade of experience, mPulse Mobile has successfully delivered more than a hundred million messages and serves a diverse clientele that includes Medicare, Medicaid, commercial plans, health systems, and pharmacies. Headquartered in Encino, California, mPulse Mobile leverages technology, analytics, and industry expertise to foster healthy behavior change and improve health outcomes for individuals and healthcare organizations alike.

Garner

Series B in 2021
Garner Health is a technology company established in 2019 and based in New York, NY, that focuses on enhancing the healthcare experience for employees through employer partnerships. By leveraging a doctor quality analytics platform, Garner Health provides insights into clinical quality and total care costs, helping employers direct their employees to high-quality healthcare providers. The platform also offers an overlay account that covers employee deductibles and coinsurance, allowing employees to reduce out-of-pocket expenses while ensuring employers achieve guaranteed savings. Through this approach, Garner Health aims to improve healthcare quality and affordability for both employees and their employers.

Holmusk

Venture Round in 2021
Holmusk Pte. Ltd. is a digital health and data analytics company focused on delivering real-world evidence for mental health and chronic diseases. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Singapore, with additional offices in New York, Durham, London, and Cyberjaya, Holmusk develops an analytics platform that integrates scientific research, electronic health records, and behavioral health data to provide predictive algorithms and actionable insights for personalized medicine. The company offers solutions such as MindLinc, an electronic health record system that enhances longitudinal data for advanced analytics, and digital therapeutics that monitor and treat patients. Holmusk's platform supports various stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem, including pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers, payers, and regulators, facilitating informed care decisions and improving treatment outcomes for individuals managing behavioral health conditions. Through its innovative approach, Holmusk aims to advance data-driven, evidence-based care and aid in the research and development of new therapies.

Alma

Series C in 2021
Alma is a membership-based network for mental health care professionals that simplifies access to higher quality, more affordable mental healthcare.

Calibrate

Series B in 2021
Calibrate Health, Inc. is a telemedicine startup focused on improving metabolic health to facilitate sustainable weight loss. Founded in 2019 and based in New York, the company offers a one-year metabolic reset program that integrates the latest scientific research on weight management. This program combines personalized medication with one-on-one coaching tailored to each individual's biology, goals, and lifestyle, aiming for a lasting weight reduction of at least 10%. Calibrate's platform is designed to drive physiological changes essential for effective obesity treatment, utilizing a value-based pricing model that emphasizes outcomes. Through telemedicine consultations and behavior change strategies, Calibrate empowers individuals to take control of their health and maintain long-term fitness.

Rey

Series A in 2021
Rey is a membership-based, on-demand mental health company on a mission to revolutionize mental health and wellness by improving access to personalized services through technology.

LetsGetChecked

Series D in 2021
LetsGetChecked is an at-home health testing platform that connects customers to regulated laboratory testing to better manage and control one's individual health. LetsGetChecked is making healthcare and diagnostics open and patient-led, empowering people to use technology in a simple yet powerful way. This offers consumers greater control over their individual health. LetsGetChecked is headquartered in New York, NY, with tests covering general wellness, sexual health, women's health and men's health, and is available nationwide, as well as in Canada and Europe.

Main Street Health

Series A in 2021
Main Street Health is a value-based healthcare provider dedicated solely to rural America. The company was founded in 2021 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.

Heartbeat Health

Series B in 2021
Heartbeat Health, Inc. is a New York-based company that specializes in cardiology services. Established in 2017, it provides a range of offerings, including web-based real-time consulting and virtual physician consultations, along with follow-up services. The company aims to address cardiovascular health by screening, diagnosing, tracking, and managing cardiovascular risk and disease, leveraging a multidisciplinary team of doctors, designers, and engineers committed to improving heart health outcomes.

Vesta Healthcare

Venture Round in 2021
Vesta Healthcare is an industry-leading technology and clinical services organization, dedicated to connecting caregiver insights to the rest of the care team. Vesta Healthcare proactively identifies the need for additional resources in the home and provides 24/7 telehealth support for caregivers and care recipients, with a focus on high-need, frail senior populations. Vesta partners with home care agencies, health plans and providers to create value-based population health programs that emphasize clinical quality, improved health outcomes and personalized engagement. Vesta Healthcare is headquartered in New York, NY.

Equip Health

Series A in 2021
Equip is a virtual program helping families recover from eating disorders at home with comprehensive, gold-standard care created by experts in the field and people in recovery. Equip’s five person care teams include dieticians, physicians, therapists, and mentors who deliver wrap-around support to provide families progress and lasting recovery. Kristina Saffran and Erin Parks co-founded the company in San Diego, California in 2019.

Equip Health

Series A in 2021
Equip is a virtual program helping families recover from eating disorders at home with comprehensive, gold-standard care created by experts in the field and people in recovery. Equip’s five person care teams include dieticians, physicians, therapists, and mentors who deliver wrap-around support to provide families progress and lasting recovery. Kristina Saffran and Erin Parks co-founded the company in San Diego, California in 2019.

PatientsLikeMe

Venture Round in 2021
PatientsLikeMe, Inc. operates a healthcare data-sharing platform that allows patients to share their symptoms, treatments, and health experiences with a broad audience, including caregivers, researchers, and pharmaceutical companies. This platform aims to enhance the understanding of various health conditions, such as cancer, mental health issues, and chronic diseases, ultimately contributing to the development of new treatments. With over 600,000 members, PatientsLikeMe serves as a trusted source for real-world disease information and has published more than 100 research studies, demonstrating its commitment to integrating patient voices into research and public policy. The company collaborates with major pharmaceutical firms and government organizations to advance health management and outcomes. Founded in 2004 and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, PatientsLikeMe is a subsidiary of United Healthcare Services, Inc.

Alma

Series B in 2021
Alma is a membership-based network for mental health care professionals that simplifies access to higher quality, more affordable mental healthcare.

Greater Good Health

Seed Round in 2021
Greater Good Health is a healthcare organization dedicated to enhancing access to primary care through a holistic, value-based approach. The company operates a nurse practitioner-powered platform that focuses on empowering nurse practitioners (NPs) by providing them with a comprehensive suite of resources, including a digital community, an education portal, and wellness resources aimed at preventing burnout. Greater Good Health also develops its own primary care clinics and offers technology tools for scheduling, analytics, and point-of-care support. By equipping NPs with these tools and resources, the organization enables them to manage complex patient populations effectively, ultimately improving health outcomes and reducing costs for customers.

Diameter Health

Series B in 2020
Diameter Health, Inc. develops innovative software solutions aimed at enhancing data interoperability for healthcare organizations. The company's flagship product, Fusion, facilitates intelligent data exchange by normalizing and cleansing information from certified electronic health records (EHRs), thereby transforming it into clinically relevant data for point-of-care use and analytics. In addition to Fusion, Diameter Health offers various tools, including Data Dashboard, which provides instant data quality ratings and metrics for clinical document accuracy; Quality, which supports certified quality reporting of e-measures; and Payer Edition, designed for generating standard supplemental reporting data. Other offerings include Subscribe, which allows for automatic updates for specific patient populations, and a scalable Hosted Solution. Diameter Health serves a diverse clientele, including government agencies, health information exchanges, payers, healthcare IT vendors, life insurers, and health systems. Founded in 2013, the company operates from its offices in Farmington, Connecticut, and Wellesley, Massachusetts.

Buoy Health

Series C in 2020
Buoy Health, Inc. is a health technology company based in Boston, Massachusetts, with an additional office in New York. Founded in 2014, Buoy Health specializes in artificial intelligence-driven digital health solutions that assist individuals in managing their health and healthcare options. The company offers a personalized online healthcare chatbot, known as Buoy Assistant, which analyzes symptoms, facilitates initial triage, and provides treatment recommendations. This platform enables users to conduct real-time assessments of their symptoms while simplifying the navigation of the healthcare system. Additionally, Buoy Health provides resources for employees through its Buoy Dashboard, allowing them to research benefits, access wellness programs, and connect with in-network providers. The service is available 24/7, making self-diagnosis and healthcare navigation straightforward and accessible.

mPulse.

Series C in 2020
mPulse Mobile, Inc. specializes in healthcare communication technology, focusing on enhancing consumer health and wellness through its cloud-based mobile messaging platform. This intelligent platform features pre-configured message workflows designed to address issues such as missed appointments, medication adherence, and chronic disease management. The company's solutions cater to a range of healthcare needs, including Medicaid preventive care, medication adherence, chronic condition management, and optimizing health plan experiences. With over a decade of experience, mPulse Mobile has successfully delivered more than a hundred million messages and serves a diverse clientele that includes Medicare, Medicaid, commercial plans, health systems, and pharmacies. Headquartered in Encino, California, mPulse Mobile leverages technology, analytics, and industry expertise to foster healthy behavior change and improve health outcomes for individuals and healthcare organizations alike.

DispatchHealth

Series C in 2020
DispatchHealth Management, LLC is a provider of on-demand mobile and virtual healthcare services based in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 2013, the company offers a wide range of services including acute injury and illness evaluations, laceration repair, splinting of injured extremities, treatment for nosebleeds, placement of Foley and G-tubes, medication administration, laboratory testing, and coordination with primary care physicians and home health agencies. By delivering care in the comfort of patients' homes, DispatchHealth aims to reduce unnecessary emergency room visits and hospitalizations, improve clinical outcomes, and lower overall healthcare costs. The organization focuses on creating an integrated and convenient healthcare solution that enhances the capabilities of patients' care teams and ensures high-quality care.

Somatus

Series C in 2020
Somatus is a healthcare company that partners with health plans, health systems, and nephrology, and primary care groups. It provides integrated care for patients with or at risk of developing kidney disease. Somatus' is vertically integrated clinical services and technology delay or prevent disease progression, improve quality and care coordination, and increase the use of home dialysis modalities and rates of kidney transplantation. The company is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, and founded by a team of world-class healthcare operators, successful entrepreneurs, and leading clinicians treating kidney disease.

Mindstrong

Series C in 2020
Mindstrong Inc., operating as Mindstrong Health, focuses on remote patient monitoring and mental health symptom assessment through its innovative application. The platform utilizes AI-powered digital biomarker technology to enable users to monitor their mental health symptoms continuously and objectively. Mindstrong offers a range of services, including cognitive behavioral therapy, crisis management, and psychoeducation, delivered through structured messaging sessions. The company develops comprehensive care pathways that integrate passively collected data on cognitive function and mood, enhancing patient engagement through telehealth solutions. Founded in 2013 and based in Mountain View, California, Mindstrong collaborates with various stakeholders, including pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers, and academic institutions, to advance medical innovation and improve healthcare delivery.

Holmusk

Series A in 2020
Holmusk Pte. Ltd. is a digital health and data analytics company focused on delivering real-world evidence for mental health and chronic diseases. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Singapore, with additional offices in New York, Durham, London, and Cyberjaya, Holmusk develops an analytics platform that integrates scientific research, electronic health records, and behavioral health data to provide predictive algorithms and actionable insights for personalized medicine. The company offers solutions such as MindLinc, an electronic health record system that enhances longitudinal data for advanced analytics, and digital therapeutics that monitor and treat patients. Holmusk's platform supports various stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem, including pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers, payers, and regulators, facilitating informed care decisions and improving treatment outcomes for individuals managing behavioral health conditions. Through its innovative approach, Holmusk aims to advance data-driven, evidence-based care and aid in the research and development of new therapies.

LetsGetChecked

Series C in 2020
LetsGetChecked is an at-home health testing platform that connects customers to regulated laboratory testing to better manage and control one's individual health. LetsGetChecked is making healthcare and diagnostics open and patient-led, empowering people to use technology in a simple yet powerful way. This offers consumers greater control over their individual health. LetsGetChecked is headquartered in New York, NY, with tests covering general wellness, sexual health, women's health and men's health, and is available nationwide, as well as in Canada and Europe.

Heartbeat Health

Series A in 2020
Heartbeat Health, Inc. is a New York-based company that specializes in cardiology services. Established in 2017, it provides a range of offerings, including web-based real-time consulting and virtual physician consultations, along with follow-up services. The company aims to address cardiovascular health by screening, diagnosing, tracking, and managing cardiovascular risk and disease, leveraging a multidisciplinary team of doctors, designers, and engineers committed to improving heart health outcomes.

Contessa

Series D in 2019
Contessa Health, Inc., based in Nashville, Tennessee, specializes in home hospitalization programs designed to enhance patient care while managing episodic risk. The company is recognized as a pioneer in Home Recovery Care, a risk-based model that integrates essential components of inpatient hospital care within patients' homes. Contessa employs a proprietary health informatics platform to support this model, ensuring that care is safe, affordable, and effective in improving patient outcomes. Additionally, Contessa offers solutions such as ContessaCare, which empowers healthcare providers to deliver hospital-level care at home, and ContradoClaim, a claims analytics tool that assists partners in managing prospective payments. The company also provides bundled payment managed services, enabling health plans and systems to optimize their care delivery without the need for hospital admissions. Contessa Health was founded in 2015 and continues to lead innovations in home-based healthcare.

Buoy Health

Series B in 2019
Buoy Health, Inc. is a health technology company based in Boston, Massachusetts, with an additional office in New York. Founded in 2014, Buoy Health specializes in artificial intelligence-driven digital health solutions that assist individuals in managing their health and healthcare options. The company offers a personalized online healthcare chatbot, known as Buoy Assistant, which analyzes symptoms, facilitates initial triage, and provides treatment recommendations. This platform enables users to conduct real-time assessments of their symptoms while simplifying the navigation of the healthcare system. Additionally, Buoy Health provides resources for employees through its Buoy Dashboard, allowing them to research benefits, access wellness programs, and connect with in-network providers. The service is available 24/7, making self-diagnosis and healthcare navigation straightforward and accessible.

LetsGetChecked

Series B in 2019
LetsGetChecked is an at-home health testing platform that connects customers to regulated laboratory testing to better manage and control one's individual health. LetsGetChecked is making healthcare and diagnostics open and patient-led, empowering people to use technology in a simple yet powerful way. This offers consumers greater control over their individual health. LetsGetChecked is headquartered in New York, NY, with tests covering general wellness, sexual health, women's health and men's health, and is available nationwide, as well as in Canada and Europe.

Diameter Health

Series A in 2019
Diameter Health, Inc. develops innovative software solutions aimed at enhancing data interoperability for healthcare organizations. The company's flagship product, Fusion, facilitates intelligent data exchange by normalizing and cleansing information from certified electronic health records (EHRs), thereby transforming it into clinically relevant data for point-of-care use and analytics. In addition to Fusion, Diameter Health offers various tools, including Data Dashboard, which provides instant data quality ratings and metrics for clinical document accuracy; Quality, which supports certified quality reporting of e-measures; and Payer Edition, designed for generating standard supplemental reporting data. Other offerings include Subscribe, which allows for automatic updates for specific patient populations, and a scalable Hosted Solution. Diameter Health serves a diverse clientele, including government agencies, health information exchanges, payers, healthcare IT vendors, life insurers, and health systems. Founded in 2013, the company operates from its offices in Farmington, Connecticut, and Wellesley, Massachusetts.

AbleTo

Corporate Round in 2019
AbleTo is a leading provider of virtual behavioral health care. Deep behavioral health insights and an integrated proprietary platform identifies and engages the right patients with the right support – when and how they want it. Their proven programs improve clinical outcomes and lower health care costs. AbleTo is committed to reach people with unmet behavioral health needs and eliminate barriers through virtual care. Their high-quality behavioral health care delivers results for their patients and their clients. AbleTo is proven to improve health outcomes and reduce medical costs with a program that earns high satisfaction scores from patients.

Mindstrong

Series B in 2018
Mindstrong Inc., operating as Mindstrong Health, focuses on remote patient monitoring and mental health symptom assessment through its innovative application. The platform utilizes AI-powered digital biomarker technology to enable users to monitor their mental health symptoms continuously and objectively. Mindstrong offers a range of services, including cognitive behavioral therapy, crisis management, and psychoeducation, delivered through structured messaging sessions. The company develops comprehensive care pathways that integrate passively collected data on cognitive function and mood, enhancing patient engagement through telehealth solutions. Founded in 2013 and based in Mountain View, California, Mindstrong collaborates with various stakeholders, including pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers, and academic institutions, to advance medical innovation and improve healthcare delivery.

LetsGetChecked

Series A in 2018
LetsGetChecked is an at-home health testing platform that connects customers to regulated laboratory testing to better manage and control one's individual health. LetsGetChecked is making healthcare and diagnostics open and patient-led, empowering people to use technology in a simple yet powerful way. This offers consumers greater control over their individual health. LetsGetChecked is headquartered in New York, NY, with tests covering general wellness, sexual health, women's health and men's health, and is available nationwide, as well as in Canada and Europe.

Buoy Health

Series A in 2017
Buoy Health, Inc. is a health technology company based in Boston, Massachusetts, with an additional office in New York. Founded in 2014, Buoy Health specializes in artificial intelligence-driven digital health solutions that assist individuals in managing their health and healthcare options. The company offers a personalized online healthcare chatbot, known as Buoy Assistant, which analyzes symptoms, facilitates initial triage, and provides treatment recommendations. This platform enables users to conduct real-time assessments of their symptoms while simplifying the navigation of the healthcare system. Additionally, Buoy Health provides resources for employees through its Buoy Dashboard, allowing them to research benefits, access wellness programs, and connect with in-network providers. The service is available 24/7, making self-diagnosis and healthcare navigation straightforward and accessible.

Mindstrong

Series A in 2017
Mindstrong Inc., operating as Mindstrong Health, focuses on remote patient monitoring and mental health symptom assessment through its innovative application. The platform utilizes AI-powered digital biomarker technology to enable users to monitor their mental health symptoms continuously and objectively. Mindstrong offers a range of services, including cognitive behavioral therapy, crisis management, and psychoeducation, delivered through structured messaging sessions. The company develops comprehensive care pathways that integrate passively collected data on cognitive function and mood, enhancing patient engagement through telehealth solutions. Founded in 2013 and based in Mountain View, California, Mindstrong collaborates with various stakeholders, including pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers, and academic institutions, to advance medical innovation and improve healthcare delivery.
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