GE Ventures and StartUp Health Expand Partnership with Focus on Virtual Health Solutions
StartUp Health and GE Ventures are expanding their partnership to invest in healthcare startups developing virtual health platforms and next generation payment solutions.
The GE and StartUp Health Entrepreneurship Program launched in 2013 with 15 consumer health companies. Over the next year, the program will accept 10 new companies and selected companies will enter the three-year StartUp Health Academy and be eligible for a $50,000 investment.
“We believe unique collaborations are required between extraordinary entrepreneurs and the world’s industry leaders like GE in order to fix today’s most complex healthcare challenges," Steven Krein, co-founder and CEO of StartUp Health said in a statement.
According to GE Ventures and StartUp Health, the program is designed to help startups commercialize and grow by providing access to GE Ventures’ executives and technology team as well as StartUp Health Academy’s coaching and network of investors and customers.
“Our initial program’s participants have hit some amazing milestones – including two follow-on investments from GE Ventures and one acquisition by a major healthcare company,” Ruchita Sinha, Director of Healthcare, GE Ventures. “We look forward to extending the program to a new group of entrepreneurs, offering them StartUp Health’s powerful platform to gain traction, and GE’s global network to help them scale.”
“From day one, we’ve had a synced vision with GE Ventures - to foster innovation that will make a big difference in transforming every aspect of healthcare,” Krein said.
The program will initially support startups and early-stage growth companies that fit any of the two areas of focus.Payment solutions including network offerings such as supporting private exchanges and provider cost and performance analytics, as well as point solutions including e-wallets and point of care consumer payment processing and claims free economy, such as shopping sites for health.
Virtual health platforms could include platforms that enable clinician-to-clinician engagement, specialist referral, interpretation services, second opinions, clinician-to-patient engagement, remote monitoring, e-visits/consultations and store-forward diagnosis.
