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Despite Dan Trigub's career history at Uber and Lyft, the MedArrive CEO wants you to know his company is not a transportation business but an enabler of in-home care. 

Why it matters: In a tight funding market, it's critical for companies to prove their strengths and clearly communicate their limitations to investors and potential partners.  

"People think we're in the transportation business. We're not," Trigub told Erin at HLTH in Las Vegas this month. The executive previously steered health efforts at Uber and Lyft. 

Details: Trigub was not the the only founder at HLTH correcting people's notions about their business. 

Executives and founders at seven health tech companies including  Lyra Health, One Medical and Evernow are all working to emphasize that their companies are not as basic as mainstream narratives would have them seem.

What they're saying: Several leaders focused on the fact that they aren't simply addressing a single health issue, such as menopause or mild mental illness, but a myriad of symptoms — and sometimes, a myriad of markets. 

"We treat a lot of very complicated issues," Lyra COO Connie Chen told Erin, pointing to its recently added dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) service, which it rolled out during the pandemic "because suicidality was rising so much." 

The company began offering treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD) at the same time.

"This is not just about menopause — it's about women's health, full stop," said Evernow CEO Alicia Jackson. 

Menopause is "not just hot flashes," Jackson added. "It's highly correlated with metabolic disease, a decline in cardiovascular health, and osteoporosis — and symptoms start around age 40."

"We actually serve everyone, from Google to Grandma," said One Medical CIO Rushika Fernandopulle, who before One Medical's acquisition of Medicare Advantage business Iora Health served as that company's CEO. 

(Recall that Amazon in July forked over $4 billion for the combined entity). 

Meanwhile, others stressed that their services were not built for one-time use.

"People misunderstand that it's not one-and-done but a life journey," Calm CEO David Ko told Erin. "Our goal is to be there every step of the way."

"People think we're an urgent care service or for a one-time need," said Teladoc chief medical officer Vidya Raman-Tangella. "Show me another company with our acquisitions and offerings — we do longitudinal and holistic care."

And like MedArrive, some are struggling to stress their role as enablers rather than providers.

"We're not a direct primary care (DPC) company," Zak Holdsworth, the CEO of a software startup called Hint Health that this month bought health record company AeroDPC, told Erin. "We serve the DPC community." 

The take home: Health tech leaders with big ambitions are focused on communicating what they can — and perhaps more importantly can't — do.

For Trigub, who wants his company to power virtually any health care program, that presents a simple problem. 

1 big thing: Mission under microscope 

Illustration of a doctor's hands holding a large magnifying glass over a dollar bill.

ABRY-backed health-data security company CloudWave acquired Sensato Cybersecurity, the company has announced. 

Why it's the BFD: With medical records giant Epic inking a partnership with Google Cloud this month, the race to host (and protect) medical data is on. 

Details: Terms were not disclosed, but CloudWave CEO Erik Littlejohn says the deal was financed through CloudWave's existing credit line. 

Sensato founder John Gomez joined CloudWave as chief security and engineering officer. 

Flashback: ABRY acquired CloudWave from WestView Partners in 2021. Terms for the deal were not disclosed.

How it works: CloudWave is a cloud EHR hosting provider, managing and protecting patient records data for more than 250 hospitals. 

Although some of its customers are managed in the public cloud (think Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services), CloudWave also has its OpSus private cloud offering.

Sensato's "cybersecurity as a service" platform monitors potential cyberthreats for health care customers. 

"In the last two years, we've had 30 customers impacted by some sort of ransomware or malware event," Littlejohn says. 

Yes, and: Sensato works closely with the FDA, enabling it to offer security monitoring for connected medical devices across hospitals, Littlejohn says.

State of play: While public cloud providers like Google, Microsoft and Amazon continue to make inroads in health care, Littlejohn thinks the future of medical data hosting will be hybrid.

"Some workloads are going to make more sense via a customer's data center because of risk factors," he said. "There are use cases where a private cloud makes the most economic sense."

What's next: CloudWave is "actively engaged and looking at [acquisition] opportunities," Littlejohn tells Axios.

In a bid to build an end-to-end solution, CloudWave wants to snap up application management and help-desk service providers, he says.

Companies with urban and academic medical centers as customers are attractive as CloudWave looks to expand from primarily community hospitals. 

What we're watching: CloudWave is in growth mode now, but could it be an eventual target for public cloud providers?

"I get asked that a lot," Littlejohn says. "I don't think it'll be directly by one of the public clouds, but it might be somebody doing a lot of work with AWS and GCP that might desire to strengthen capabilities in health care vertically." 

2. The BFD: CloudWave acquires Sensato

Illustration of a hundred-dollar bill in the shape of a manila folder.

Nyra Medical, an Atlanta-based medical device startup focused on mitral heart valve repair, has raised $20m in Series A funding co-led by Vensana Capital and an undisclosed global medical device company with additional participation Broadview Ventures, Epidarex Capital and the Georgia Research Alliance Venture Fund. https://www.nyramed.com/ 

Capitol, a New York-based developer of AI-powered anti-fraud tools for health insurers, has raised $10m in seed funding led by 468 Capital with participation from Designer Fund, Fuel Capital, Tokyo Black, Brian Chesky, Chase Coleman III, Nomad Capital, AirAngels, Sanno Capital and John McCormick. https://capitol.ai/ 

Almond, a Los Angeles-based virtual and in-person reproductive health care startup, has raised $7m in seed funding led by True Ventures. https://axios.link/3iayEc7 

The Lanby, a New York-based concierge primary care company, has raised $2.7m in seed funding led by Female Founders Fund with participation from Launch, Goodwater Capital and Magic Fund. https://www.thelanby.com/

Cloud 9 Software,  a provider of cloud-based practice management systems for dental organizations, has acquired practice management platform Focus Ortho. axios.link/3gHbAS5

BrightSpring Health Services, a Louisville, Ky.-based provider of home and community-based healthcare services, has withdrawn its pans for a $750m IPO. https://axios.link/3gFvuwH

3. Deals o' the day

OPEN Health, a scientific communication services for pharmaceutical companies backed by Astorg, has appointed former LabCorp CEO David King as non-executive chair and Gilead Sciences exec Paul Carter as an independent board member. 

MedArrive has named former VirtualHealth senior marketing manager Kristian Romero director of marketing.

Big Health named former Steady Health CEO and Carbon Health general manager Henrik Berggren VP of product.

The AARP Foundation has named former Economist Impact global head of policy Claire Casey president.

4. It's Personnel

🍛 Claire's Thanksgiving leftovers are nearly finished save for half a pot of chana masala curry that spiced up her holiday plate. 

✅ Thanks for reading, and extra thanks to newsletter editor George Moriarty and copy editor Brad Bonhall. Please ask your friends and colleagues to sign up.

November 28, 2022

1 big thing: Mission under microscope