MediSafe, Frame Health and ‘compliance’ winners in Health 2.0 competition

Compliance ruled at Health 2.0’s Traction: Startup Championship at their annual meeting in Santa Clara, California. Mobile med reminder app MediSafe won the consumer-facing company ‘bakeoff’ and Frame Health, a big data analytics company which uses psychology to predict non-compliance, the provider-facing competition. Both competed in their class against four other companies and were judged by big-money VCs and mentors from ED Ventures, HealthTech Capital, Merck, AARP, Ziegler and others. The action also seems to be moving away from startups, as this competition was for Series A level companies with clients and real business, positioned for next round funding in the $2-12 million range. (more…)

Health IT funding bubble seen by veteran investor

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/crystal-ball.jpg” thumb_width=”120″ /] How is health tech like the 1990s ‘dot-com’-ers? Veteran Silicon Valley investor (HealthTech Capital) and former entrepreneur Anne DeGheest projects a ‘Series B crunch‘ in funding health tech and IT in an interview with The Wall Street Journal’s Venture Capital Dispatch. The key factors: angels and ‘unsophisticated investors’ are pouring money into all sorts of devices, apps and related services in seed and Series A stages just to get on board in a hot sector. When the founders of these companies get to Series B and present to more demanding investors, the lack of a true value proposition and a detailed business plan that answers basic questions leave them standing on, as aptly put, ‘a pier to nowhere’ or as Joe Hage termed it last month, ‘insolvent with a great idea.’

Ms. DeGheest’s view that we are reprising the elements of the ‘dot-com’ bubble is confirmed by the numbers in Rock Health‘s and PwC‘s funding reports throughout 2013:   (more…)