Olive, a US-based healthcare management software producer backed by internet and technology group Alphabet, has unveiled an internal venture studio called Olive Ventures.
Through the unit, Olive seeks to provide funding and development support for digital healthcare startups. Participating companies will have access to its technology and insights to accelerate the development and commercialisation of their products.
Olive Ventures is already working with two companies: Violet, the creator of a digital banking platform for health patients with large medical bills, and Rotera, a developer of artificial intelligence-equipped healthcare automation tools.
Sean Lane, CEO of Olive, said: “We are bridging the ‘valley of death’ in the healthcare startup landscape. I have seen far too many great ideas be shot down without ever completing a pilot project.
“We are charting a new path for digital health innovators by killing the traditional pilot and rewriting the entire process to be better, smarter and faster.”
Olive was founded in 2012 and builds software tools that allow healthcare providers to automate administrative tasks. It was valued at $4bn in a $400m funding round in July 2021 that was led by investment firm Vista Equity Partners.