US-based healthcare system Spectrum Health is set to commit up to $100m to a corporate venturing fund that will back healthcare startups, MiBiz has reported.
Spectrum Health Ventures will invest in early-stage companies looking to bring technology and services to the market that are capable of improving the cost and effectiveness of medical treatment, Spectrum chief strategy officer Roger Jansen said.
Five areas in particular are being considered: behavioural tools to improve health and well-being, personalised medicine and genomics, digital technology, population and health analytics, and artificial intelligence and cognitive computing software that will help prevent disease.
The capital will be provided over a 10-year period, and Spectrum will look to participate in deals where it can co-invest alongside other health systems.
The unit expects to make initial commitments of about $2m at series A or B stage, and to potentially make follow-on investments in its portfolio companies.
Jansen told MiBiz: “We want to continue to say, ‘We are not done. We want to be nation-leading and we have to continue to push ourselves and our thinking’.
“With all of the dynamic nature of healthcare right now, it is really important to be on the front cutting end of some of the new technologies and therapies and interventions that are going on, and one of the ways to do that is to start looking at who you partner and invest with around those things.”
Spectrum Health Ventures was incorporated in December 2016 but is yet to complete its first deal. The fund is working with Avia, an innovation network that manages VC funds for health systems, and will seek to back two to four companies each year.