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After a near three-year run that sources say graduated roughly 100 health companies, Optum's health care startup incubator is now on ice, Erin has learned.

Driving the news: "Optum Startup Studio ended up dissolving recently due to an org change within Optum," says Liz Selvig, a former entrepreneur-in-residence mentor who worked for the program from 2022 until the beginning of the year.

Meredith Brunette, the former CEO of fertility startup Bunnii, signed up to participate in the program late last year but said OSS never signed the contract and communicated instead that the program was under review.

Brunette was dismayed by the program's apparent shuttering because, at the time, Bunnii had secured a potential lead investor for its first fundraise and, "part of the [person's] interest was our participation in that studio," she says.

She added that the company had planned to pilot its BRB offering with Optum's fertility benefits group. "That would have given us a huge leg up for such an early-stage company, whereas most companies wouldn’t get to that point for several years. In health care, partnerships matter so much, and channel partnerships matter so much, and it’s so hard to get them."

How it worked: Entrepreneurs accepted into Optum Startup Studio received mentorship and a chance to pilot their offerings through Optum's expansive ecosystem.

Accepted entrepreneurs also collected roughly $25,000 to $50,000 in non-dilutive grant funding, per its website and people familiar.

"More advantageously [than the funds], they got a lot of mentorship and support from people the team knew, meaning they got invited to meetings they otherwise wouldn’t have and support from people they otherwise couldn’t obtain," one person familiar tells Axios.

OSS was founded in 2019 as a collaboration between Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business and Optum, the person says.

What they're saying: "The executive sponsorship went away and so did the program, because it wasn’t a strategic priority for Optum," says the person close to the matter.

Zoom out: In-house entrepreneurship programs can offer startups structure and support that may be especially beneficial in a tough market, but the same conditions can cause sprawling organizations like Optum to quickly change priorities.

A spokesperson for Optum declined to comment.

1 big thing: Optum Startup Studio said to be on ice

Home teeth cleaning device maker Proclaim filled a $15 million Series B, CEO Heberto Calves tells Erin exclusively.

Why it's the BFD: The COVID-inspired home care push hasn't just been limited to traditional health care — it's now taking a bite out of traditional dentistry.

Details: Khosla Ventures, Global Asset Capital, Ensemble Innovation Ventures, SpringRock Ventures and Revere Capital participated in the round.

Individual backers, including former Fitbit chief business officer Woody Scal, and Intuitive Surgical and Auris Health founder, Frederic Moll, also joined.

Funds will go toward commercialization and launching.

Calves says he plans to start raising a Series C starting in the spring, with the aim of closing the round in the summer of 2024.

How it works: Proclaim's device is a personalized, 3D-printed mouthpiece outfitted with 60 water jets designed to clean between the teeth and along the gums.

The device, which is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration as a Class I medical device, costs $899 and is launching temporarily with a sticker price of $799.

Calves says the company plans to sell directly to consumers with social media marketing and advertising in dental practices.

A Proclaim-funded, 30-day study of roughly 200 people found when paired with daily brushing, the device helped significantly reduce gum bleeding, gum inflammation and plaque buildup compared with daily brushing and string flossing alone.

What they’re saying: "We believe this is a new category and a paradigm shift in preventive health, starting in oral health," says Calves.

The intrigue: Like other health care providers, dentists are known to be slow movers when it comes to adapting to new entrants — so Proclaim's aim of selling through the dentistry channel may take a significant amount of educational foundation-setting.

State of play: The home oral health market is a mixed bag, with private companies attracting recent market attention and others — such as teeth alignment device developer SmileDirectClub — seeing their stock plummet.

With its stock trading at less than $1 a share, SmileDirectClub (Nasdaq: SDC) in May faced its second Nasdaq warning of potential delisting.

Bristle, a startup developing the first home saliva test for oral health, last July raised $3 million in seed funding.

Dental software company Planet DDS in January acquired dental practice management system provider Cloud 9 Software from Accel-KKR.

2. The BFD: Proclaim fills $15M Series B for home teeth cleaning

Illustration of a mouth with the two front teeth made out of money.

• Upstream Bio, a Waltham, Mass.-based developer of therapies to treat inflammation, raised $200m in Series B funding. Enavate Sciences and Venrock co-led, and were joined by Bain Capital Life Sciences, Wellington Management and insiders OrbiMed, Access Biotechnology, Decheng Capital, Altshuler Shaham Provident Funds, TCG X, HBM Healthcare Investments, Omega Funds and Samsara BioCapital. www.upstreambio.com

• Oova, an NYC-based fertility tracking startup, raised $10.3m in Series A funding led by Spero Ventures and joined by US Fertility, Virgin Group, Jefferson Health, Connecticut Innovations, Hannah Bronfman and Sara Blakely. https://axios.link/3p2Duft

• BeMe, a Miami-based digital behavioral health startup, raised an undisclosed sum from Carrie Walton Penner through Fiore Ventures, bringing total fundraising to $17m. https://axios.link/3XcjXpL

• SunMed, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based portfolio company of Frazier Healthcare Partners, agreed to buy the respiratory health business of Avanos Medical (NYSE: AVNS) for $110m. https://axios.link/45SffRX

• Hahn & Co. is sponsoring a take-private tender offer for listed South Korean medical device maker Lutronics, which would be valued at around $736. https://axios.link/3quthsw

• DW Healthcare Partners invested in LKC Technologies, a Gaithersburg, Md.-based maker of electrophysiology testing devices. www.lkc.com

• Grovecourt Capital Partners acquired Premier Radiology Services, a Miami-based provider of teleradiology services. https://premierradiologyservices.com/

• ARC Health, a Thurston Group portfolio company acquired Silver Lake Psychology, a Los Angeles-based therapist group. https://www.silverlakepsychology.com/

• Wolters Kluwer Health, a Waltham, Mass.-based provider of clinical technology, acquired Invistics, a Peachtree Corners, Georgia-based provider of AI software for drug diversion detection and controlled substance compliance.

3. Deals o' the day

• Alex Galvez left a position as manager of payor partnerships at Tomorrow Health to become manager of strategic partnerships at Nursa.

• Elyse Marr became VP of operations and chief of staff to the CEO at Particle Health.

• Elnaz Moshfeghian was promoted from VP of engineering to VP of strategy and operations at Alto Pharmacy.

• Ryan McPherson left a position as SVP of customer programs at Olive AI to become VP of strategic growth at Cedar.

• Eric Santa left a position as Duos' chief strategy officer to become an adviser to the company.

4. It's Personnel

💸 Lawsuits are accusing this startup of ripping off millions from vendors. A16z backed the former CEO’s new company anyway — Forbes

5. Your daily dose

Illustration of a prescription with a handwritten note saying "daily dose."

Situational awareness: Illumina confirmed this morning that CEO Francis deSouza had resigned. Axios Pro's Mike Flaherty writes that this puts Grail back in play. 

🚲 Erin took friends visiting from London on a brief bicycle tour between thunderstorms to see a brewery and a nearby river.

☑️ Thanks for reading, and extra thanks to newsletter editor Claire Rychlewski and copy editor Mickey Meece. Please ask your colleagues, friends and family to sign up.

June 12, 2023

1 big thing: Optum Startup Studio said to be on ice