Ascension Ventures (AV), the venture capital firm formed by health system Ascension, closed its fifth fund on Friday with $285m in capital supplied by 13 healthcare providers.
Limited partners include Ascension, as well as AdventHealth, Carle Foundation, CentraCare, Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, Intermountain Healthcare, Novant Health, OhioHealth, OSF HealthCare, Luminis Health, Sentara Healthcare and Texas Health Resources.
One unnamed health system has also joined the roster of investors.
Ascension Ventures was launched in 2001 and now has more than $1bn under management.
The firm has backed approximately 80 companies in the software, services, medical device and diagnostic sectors. It operates as a stage-agnostic investor with a strategic focus on the needs of its limited partners.
Matt Hermann, senior managing director at Ascension Ventures, said: “This is an important time to be a strategic healthcare investor.
“Several factors – the pace of health system transformation, technology advances enabling new care modalities and business models, an influx of seasoned entrepreneurs tackling root cause industry issues – have created a unique time when health system and entrepreneurial markets are aligned.
“We look forward to leveraging our unique position to identify new ways to help our health system partners and our portfolio companies be successful in serving their patients, communities and customers.”
John Mitchell, senior vice-president and chief business development officer of Texas Health Resources, added: “We decided to join the AV ecosystem to collaborate with like-minded health systems and the AV team, and our belief that this partnership will help us navigate more quickly to our desired future state.”
