Busy Burr, the founder of corporate venturing unit Humana Ventures, has been hired by digital health technology developer Carrot as its president and chief executive.
Burr was US-based health insurance provider Humana’s chief innovation officer between 2015 and late 2018, leading investments in digital health startups Livongo, Aspire Health and Omada Health through Humana Ventures.
Prior to joining Humana, Burr had been managing director at Citi Ventures, the venture capital arm of financial services firm Citi, having spent four years as the bank’s global head of disruptive innovation until 2015.
The appointment follows a series of similar moves by female corporate venturers into startups.
Renee Ryan, formerly with Johnson & Johnson’s venture unit, JJDC, became CEO of digital neurology startup Cala Health in September, while Meghan Sharp, ex-head of BP Ventures in the Americas, joined one of its portfolio companies, Beyond Limits, as chief operating officer last month.
At Carrot, Burr will oversee commercialisation of the company’s first product, Pivot, a digital smoking cessation initiative. It raised $25m in an October 2018 round led by JJDC and backed by New York Life Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Marc Benioff, R7 Partners and Carrot founder David Utley.
Photo of Busy Burr courtesy of Twitter.
