UNC Health rebrands startup investment arm, adds $125M

Driving the news: UNC Health has invested in startups through Rex Health Ventures, which was started in 2012 with around $10 million in capital and a focus on investing in the Triangle.

• But the scope of its investments has scaled beyond the Triangle in recent years to include any company that could improve outcomes for patients in North Carolina.
• That scale is now being recognized under its new branding as UNC Health Ventures and an additional reallocation of money that will bring its total investment potential to $125 million.

Zoom in: UNC Health Ventures currently has 12 active companies in its portfolio, including Reprieve Cardiovascular, a company making a therapy to remove excess fluid from patients with heart failure.

• In its previous iteration as Rex Health Ventures, UNC Health's investment arm has invested in a total of 30 companies.

What they're saying: Watkins told Axios that UNC Health Ventures takes a lot of interest in the ideas and technologies that physicians and nurses within the UNC system are creating.

• But ultimately it is agnostic about where those companies are based.
• "The most important part of what we do … is to improve patient outcomes," Watkins said. "That's what work towards every single day: Finding companies that can improve both how we care for patients and patients' overall health."