Fundraising in the Current Economy: Digital Health Investors Weigh In
Date: Wednesday, January 25, 2023
Time: 10:30am—11:30am PST
Digital health had a breakout year in 2021, with startups raising a significant $29.1 billion. However, as 2022 came to a close, we saw one of the most relentless slowdowns in funding yet. We are gathering investors to reflect on major themes we saw in 2022 for digital health fundraising and, more importantly, what they project for 2023 and why. Join us to learn how investors are currently evaluating digital health opportunities and what they are really looking for.
In this webinar, we’ll cover:
- Major themes we saw for digital health fundraising in 2022
- Emerging trends we are already seeing in 2023
- Advice to digital health founders looking to fundraise in 2023 from our panel of experts
Meet the Panelists
Ruby Gadelrab (Moderator)
CEO and Founder, MDisrupt
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Ruby Gadelrab is the CEO and Co-Founder of MDisrupt. She is a seasoned digital health executive with a track record in successfully commercializing healthcare and healthtech products. She served on the executive team at 23andMe as VP of commercial marketing and has worked for many leading companies in the biotech and genetic spaces. Before founding MDisrupt, Ruby consulted for, advised, and mentored more than 25 digital health companies.
Greg Yap
Partner at Menlo Ventures
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Greg Yap is a partner at Menlo Ventures, where he invests in early-stage teams trying to solve significant problems in life science and healthcare. Throughout his career as an executive, entrepreneur, and now investor, he has focused on improving health through technology. He is committed to helping founders improve health outcomes, reduce healthcare costs, and increase access to better care. In addition to his role at Menlo, Greg is an Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellow.
Sofia Guerra
Bessemer Venture Partners
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Sofia is an investor in the Cambridge office, where she focuses on healthcare and biotech. She is the co-author of benchmarks for growing health tech businesses, a report that analysizes how health tech companies have scaled and KPIs that provide insight into that success. Sofia began her career as a consultant at Bain and Company, where she worked on strategy, operations, and due diligence projects across healthcare and technology.
Prior to joining Bessemer, she was an investor at BoxGroup Ventures and the co-founder and President of Nucleate Bio, a national life sciences entrepreneurship program helping PhDs, Post-docs, and students commercialize scientific projects.
Sofia earned her MBA from Harvard Business School and her BA with high honors in Chemistry from Harvard University. While in school, she conducted research alongside Bob Langer, a serial entrepreneur and one of 12 Institute professors at MIT widely recognized for his contributions to drug delivery and tissue engineering fields.
Jessica J. Federer
Managing Partner, Supernode Ventures
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Jessica is an investor and board member adept at deploying technology to make meaningful advancements for both business and society. As a Managing partner at Supernode Ventures, she is investing in early stage digital health companies with scaleable solutions, with a focus on women’s health. Previously, she was one of the first Chief Digital Officers in the pharma industry, leading the digital transformation for Bayer A.G. across the Pharmaceutical, Consumer Care, Crop Science and Animal Health businesses. She is recognized as one of the top 100 CDOs and a leading health tech influencer, and served on the United Nations ITU advisory board. Federer began her public health career as an analyst at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in the US Department of Health and Human Services. She earned a Bachelor of Science from the George Washington University, and a Master of Public Health from Yale.
Cat Hernandez
General Partner at The Venture Collective (TVC)
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Cat spent a decade operating in early stage startups before joining the Primary Ventures partnership where she played a critical role in shaping the firm’s post-investment approach for the better part of five years. Today, she is a General Partner and founding team member at The Venture Collective (TVC), a transformational, early stage venture business that is on a mission to bridge the funding gap for underrepresented founders on their path to building category-defining, purpose driven companies.
These days, Cat operates with the core belief that, as financiers of the future, they are responsible for investing in companies that aspire to reduce the varying layers of palpable inequity in society. Her previous work experience includes working as the Head of Due Diligence at PeopleTech Advisors, Founding Member of CHIEF and an Advisor at RealWorld.