Q&A: Outline Ventures seeks to put money into digital well being after $460M elevate

Outline Ventures, a enterprise agency whose portfolio consists of well-known early-stage startups in Silicon Valley, obtained $460 million in Fund III and Alternatives Funds and is trying to develop its investments in digital well being.

The agency invested in Folx, which affords digital healthcare companies for the LGBTQ+ neighborhood, hybrid girls’s healthcare supplier Tia, digital care administration platform DexCare, healthcare-management platform Laudio and plenty of different startups. 

Lynne Chou O’Keefe, founder and managing companion of Outline Ventures, sat down with MobiHealthNews to debate the corporate’s latest elevate and the forms of early-stage digital well being platforms in Silicon Valley it seems to be to put money into. 

MobiHealthNews: What sort of digital well being firms are you trying to put money into with the funds garnered in April?

Lynne Chou O’Keefe: With the $460 million for our Fund III and Alternatives Fund, it makes us one of many largest early-stage digital well being funds. And we actually deal with the convergence of healthcare, as a result of we’re deep healthcare operators with Silicon Valley rules and what’s occurring in expertise, and actually additionally unlocking client influences.  

We have now this analogy, which is we’re rebuilding the home of healthcare and that begins with what we name the entrance door or we’ll name it a client gateway.  

How folks enter into the well being system, we consider, is altering, between well being and wellness, psychological behavioral well being, and coming in and having these wants is quickly evolving with the consumerization of healthcare.  

We are saying when you enter into the home, you are on the muse layer of that home. And each medical determination, each enterprise determination, rests on what we name knowledge liquidity and analytics. We actually consider that, to offer folks personalised care, it’s important to not solely perceive the medical knowledge and the claims knowledge, but in addition house knowledge and community-based knowledge, as we clearly march to extra value-based care sooner or later. 

So if we’ve the precise medical knowledge, claims knowledge, house knowledge, community-based knowledge, we will now stroll you thru the hallways of the home to a extra personalised expertise, the place healthcare is delivered within the rooms, which is absolutely tech-enabled service, digital therapeutics.  

After which the final space we are saying is vertical reimagination. So we are saying full-stack homes, these are the brand new entrants that may sort of are available and compete with the incumbents and full platforms, which have all these parts constructed collectively.

MHN: Is there a sort of firm you are trying to put money into, particularly? AI or generative AI-focused firms, for instance.

O’Keefe: We put money into each incubation, seed, Sequence A and Sequence B. So the query of what you might be searching for completely relies on stage. We have invested in a staff of two folks actually with a PowerPoint and an concept, and we have invested the place we have been a part of $140 million Sequence B in value-based care. So we do search for various things.  

Because it will get to generative AI, in fact, it is just like the meteorite hit, proper? And, , ramifications are nonetheless but even to be found. However one factor, having been in healthcare and having operated in healthcare, that I feel we all the time have to come back again to, particularly residing within the valley and understanding expertise, is, to me, I will say considerably of a daring assertion: It is by no means in regards to the expertise. It is in regards to the use case.

So, as a substitute of asking a query, “What is the generative AI firm you are searching for?” I consider it extra as, “What’s the drawback or the necessity or the use case I am attempting to resolve for a supplier, a payer, a life science firm, an employer or the buyer, and are LLM fashions an inflection level for that use case to be solved?”

I’ve seen these generations of applied sciences over time. If it wasn’t generative AI, it was blockchain earlier than that, and many others. And I feel healthcare works in a approach the place, we’re in all probability not the primary to make use of applied sciences versus different sectors, however we’d like assist in healthcare, as a result of we’d like expertise enablement to drive use circumstances, to drive worth and to drive ROI [return on investment]. 

MHN: What are some crimson flags if you hear a pitch?

O’Keefe: There’s the age-old market. The timing of that chance is extremely essential. And I additionally say, “Can this mannequin be versatile in some circumstances, in a fee-for-service world and a value-based world, as we’re marching on this journey of the healthcare system. Does the founding staff actually perceive the use case?” You understand, in the event that they’re simply throwing numerous language about generative AI, however cannot actually articulate how is the payer going to make use of this and discover ROI inside a 12 months? How can we take into consideration go-to-market movement, and what is going to this product and answer differentially remedy? And is that this the staff to carry their experience to make this imaginative and prescient a actuality? 

And for healthcare, one factor I’ll say is, and particularly in digital well being, the go-to-market, that understanding, I feel, that is the place Outline might be very useful. We consider in defining partnership. It is considered one of our core values. However we additionally want an entrepreneur who’s achieved their homework, and we’ll increase that via our networks, our expertise, and we’ll adapt our go-to-market fashions. However somebody who understands that. And you have to know that on day one.