Biotech & Health

J2 Ventures, focused on military healthcare, grabs $150M for its second fund

Biotech & Health /

J2 Ventures, a firm led mostly by the U.S. military veterans, announced on Thursday that it has raised a $150 million second fund. The Boston-based firm invests in startups whose products are purchased by civilians and the U.S. Department of Defense.   While many emerging VCs are struggling to raise second funds, J2’s latest vehicle is […]

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Robot cats, dogs and birds are being deployed amid an ‘epidemic of loneliness’

Biotech & Health /

In the early 1990s, a researcher at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology began work on what would become Paro. More than 30 years after its development, the doe-eyed seal pup remains the best-known example of a therapeutic robot for older adults. In 2011, the robot reached the zenith of pop cultural

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AI-powered drug development, VW teams up with Rivian, and DEI is ‘bad’

Biotech & Health /

Welcome back to another recap of Equity, TechCrunch’s flagship podcast about the business of startups. This episode is jam-packed with deals, hot topics, and the latest dramaaaaaa in the tech world. If you haven’t listened yet, consider this your spoiler-filled invitation to dive in. Three Deals of the Week Formation Bio’s $372M Raise First up,

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Amazon consolidates Amazon Clinic into the One Medical brand

Biotech & Health /

Amazon is folding its Amazon Clinic telehealth service into its primary care business One Medical, the company announced on Thursday.  The company explained in today’s blog post that, to simplify Amazon’s primary care offering for customers, the service has now been rebranded to Amazon One Medical Pay-per-visit, and now offers more affordable per-visit pricing. Customers

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Formation Bio raises $372M to boost drug development with AI

Biotech & Health /

Formation Bio, a startup focused on applying AI to drug development with backing from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has raised over a quarter-billion dollars to support its ambitious product roadmap. Formation announced Wednesday that it raised $372 million in a Series D funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from drug maker Sanofi, Sequoia,

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Sensi.AI grabs $31M Series B from Insight, Zeev to monitor seniors 24/7

Biotech & Health /

Older adults increasingly want to age in their homes rather than nursing facilities. A study by the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) found that nearly 90% of people over 65 want to stay in their homes as they grow older. That means there is plenty of work for home care agencies whose staff assist

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10 of the most exciting digital health startups of 2024, according to VCs

Biotech & Health /

In the post-COVID world, VCs say it’s not as easy to get excited about investing in digital health. Deal activity in healthcare IT was relatively flat in Q1 2024 at 74 total deals, valued at about $1 billion total, up only 3% from the year-ago quarter, according to PitchBook data.  Still, promising startups have grabbed

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EvolutionaryScale, backed by Amazon and Nvidia, raises $142M for protein-generating AI

Biotech & Health /

A relatively new startup called EvolutionaryScale has secured a massive tranche of cash to build AI models to generate novel proteins for scientific research. EvolutionaryScale today announced that it raised $142 million in a seed round led by ex-GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross and Lux Capital with participation from Amazon and NVentures, Nvidia’s corporate

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SkyCell nabs $59M more for its greener smart pharma transport containers

Biotech & Health /

The urgency of the Covid-19 pandemic may be in the past, but the need for fast and secure ways to send valuable, fragile medicines and their components around the world is still quite relevant. SkyCell has developed hardware and software to run that transport process better — and greener, it says — than before, and

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