Can investing in companies that focus on helping vulnerable populations also be lucrative?
The venture capital firm started by former Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt is making that bet and just closed its first venture fund at $115 million.
The group, which Slavitt started with fellow health business veterans Trevor Price and David Whelan in May, is aimed at backing healthcare technology and services companies that impact care delivery for vulnerable populations that don't always benefit from innovation, they said. In particular, the group said, they wanted to target care improvements for Medicare and Medicaid patients—a population that represents more than 120 million people and $1.2 trillion worth of healthcare spending.
Their fundraising outstripped their original goal of $75 million by about 50%. "I think we were surprised by how much this resonated," Price said.
He declined to name Town Hall's backers, but said they are among the top nonprofit hospital systems, payer groups as well as entrepreneurs.
The group also announced the hire of Vice President Ann Hickey, formerly of Audax Group, Oak Hill Capital Partners, Castlight Health and Archimedes Health Investors.
Slavitt served as CMS acting administrator from March 2015 to January 2017 under the Obama administration and was former group executive vice president at UnitedHealth Group that led a troubleshooting team for Healthcare.gov. He's gone on to form health policy nonprofit United States of Care and is an avid health policy opiner on social media.
Price is the founder of executive search and investment firm Oxeon Holdings. Whelan is managing general partner Oxeon's investment arm Oxeon Ventures and former general partner of Accretive LLC.