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BFD Expert Voices - Health Tech Deals

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Clinical trials facilitator Mural Health Technologies raised $8 million in seed funding, co-CEO Sam Whitaker tells Erin exclusively.

Why it matters: The clinical trials landscape is dominated by a few expensive and slow-moving studies run largely by elite, hard-to-access academic medical centers, and Mural hopes its payment and transport tech can help facilitate broader enrollment.

Details: Bessemer Venture Partners led the round and Bessemer partner Steve Kraus joined Mural's board of directors.

Virtue VC, Operator Partners, Arkitect Ventures, Correlation Ventures and Project Mayhem Ventures participated.

Funds will go towards expanding the company's sales and engineering teams and building out its transportation tools.

Whitaker envisions Mural raising a Series A in late 2024 or early 2025.

How it works: Mural's platform is designed to help clinical trial participants choose how they get paid for their contributions (whether that's PayPal, Venmo, ACH, check, or debit), get transportation to clinical sites through an Uber integration, and message with study personnel.

Mural is currently working with three pharmaceutical and biotech companies including Sonex Health (a developer of ultrasound-guided procedure technology) and is partnered with eClinical platforms including Clinical ink and Ledger Run.

The startup charges pharma companies fees to use its software on their clinical trials: "There is a clear link between making patients' lives easier and making money for the pharma company," Whitaker says.

Be smart: Clinical trials over-enroll affluent white patients and under-enroll others, curbing the relevance and applicability of research.

The FDA in February laid out a roadmap requiring any parties seeking clinical trial approval to outline plans to include more people of color.

The backstory: Before co-founding Mural with co-CEO Jason Dong, Whitaker started a clinical trial payments company called Greenphire — now Mural's primary competitor, in Whitaker's view.

What they're saying: Whitaker sees Mural's payment technology as both a continuation of his product work at Greenphire and a strategic touchpoint to influence other aspects of the clinical trials experience, such as diversifying participation by simplifying the process and collecting data on satisfaction.

"From a strategy perspective, we're evolving what was a point solution into a more strategic offering," he says. "We're really using payments to influence human behavior ... and coupling that with other features that make [participants'] lives easier."

One fun thing: Whitaker drew inspiration for Mural's name while looking at a mural in his office one day.

"A mural is a collection of many pieces of art that create a single entity. We think of clinical trials very similarly, in the sense that it's a large global effort made up of people from many different backgrounds and cultures," he says.

1 big thing: Mural enrolls $8M for clinical trials tech

Illustration of a line of people waiting at a red cross-shaped door.

The venture-backed clinical trials infrastructure space is heating up, fueled by the FDA's guidance around diversity and increased awareness about the limitations of current medical research. For example:

Power, a startup developing user-friendly search tools to help people more easily find open trials, last August collected $7 million in seed funds.

Topography Health, which provides community physicians with a plug-and-play trials platform, last January landed $21.5 million in Series A capital.

Macro Trials, focused on helping to speed the development of high-value therapeutics, in June raised a $6 million seed round.

Clinical trials infrastructure tech: State of play

2. State of play: Clinical trials infrastructure tech

Illustration of a white board with a tactical diagram using letters spelling out "State of Play."

Briya, an Israeli-based, blockchain-secured patient data exchange platform, raised $11.5 in Series A funding, David Lazerson, co-founder and CEO of Briya, tells Aaron exclusively.

Why it's the BFD: Increased and accelerated access to clinical data is paramount to improved and innovative care.

Other participants include existing investors Insight Partners and Amiti Ventures, as well as the George Kaiser Family Foundation.

The round brings the company to a total of $17 million in funding.

How it works: Briya connects clinics and hospitals with academic and pharmaceutical research teams, in a bid to optimize clinical trials, ensure regulatory compliance, and accelerate drug discovery.

The company facilitates retrieval of patient information by converting health care data into FHIR or OMOP standards and de-identifying queried data.

Briya's emphasis on privacy and security — versus making it "an afterthought" — stood out to Team8, says managing partner Assaf Mischari.

"Briya provides a complete solution that allows even small healthcare providers to collaborate with researchers," says Mischari.

"The automatic data discovery, harmonization, and baked-in privacy and security measures dramatically reduce the administrative and IT burden that, in many cases, prevents collaboration."

What's next: The fundraise has a runway of about two years. Proceeds will primarily help Briya accelerate U.S. expansion as it looks to partner with hospitals and providers.

While Briya is hyper-focused on growth now, Lazerson says he expects profitability will become more important after it raises a Series B. 

The big picture: As noted above, the FDA continues to call for diversity in clinical trials. Briya is well-positioned to help life sciences organizations navigate that evolving framework, Mischari says.

3. The BFD: Briya secures $11.5M Series A

Illustration of a stethoscope tied in knots around binary numbers.

Awell, a Belgium-based platform that helps automate routine clinical tasks, raised a $5 million seed, CEO Thomas Vande Casteele tells Aaron exclusively.

Why it matters: Inefficiencies in traditional workflows used to manage care can compromise patient well-being and increase strain on care teams.

Details: The round was led by Octopus Ventures.

Other participants included S16, and angel investors including health care veteran David Prior, former chair of the U.K.'s National Health Service.

How it works: Launched in July 2018, Awell helps automate paper-based workflows — like triage, patient onboarding, and care plans — while synchronizing data between different systems.

The company's users include health care providers in the U.S. like Patina Health and Parsley Health.

The company has been generating revenue from day one, according to Vande Casteele, who declined to disclose exact financials.

To support future growth, Awell launched CareOps in July 2022.

Inspired by DevOps, CareOps brings siloed roles like clinicians and software engineers together to tackle staff shortages, clinician burnout, and inefficiencies in care delivery. 

What's next: "We will target expansion in the U.S., particularly in growing relationships with traditional care organizations," Vande Casteele says.

"We built a platform that does not live in straight jacket and not aimed at a specific geography," he says.

Awell will target U.S.-based tech-enabled services providers first — like Patina and Parlsey — and then focus on a go-to-market strategy with more traditional health care providers.

Between the lines: "This gives us two years of runway," he says. "A couple of years ago, the average runway was 12-18 months — but times have changed."

While the company has a path to profitability, the fresh capital "is aimed for growth so will increase our burn," Vande Casteele says.

"We are not dealing with weeklong sales cycles," he adds. "When it comes to health care SaaS, you have to invest in attracting new customers."

4. Awell snags $5M seed to automate workflow

Illustration of robot hands holding a clipboard.

Want more health tech deals? Check out the Axios Pro Deals Tracker beta.

• Virtual Incision, a Lincoln, Neb.-based developer of miniaturized robots for laparoscopic surgery, raised $30m in Series C extension funding from Arboretum Ventures, InVivium Capital and insiders Bluestem Capital, Endeavour Vision, Baird Capital, Cultivate(MD) Capital Funds and PrairieGold Venture Partners. www.virtualincision.com

• Glass Health, an SF-based provider of AI-powered clinical decision support tools, raised $5m in unlabeled funding led by Initialized Capital with participation from One Medical founder Tom Lee, EKO Health CEO Connor Landgraf, and Figs co-founders Heather Hasson and Trina Spear. https://glass.health/

•  CVC Capital Partners is considering a sale or IPO for Mehilainen, a Finnish health care services firm that could be valued at €5b, per Bloomberg, https://axios.link/44XLHQQ

• Waud Capital-backed Unifeye Vision Partners, a Dallas-based network of comprehensive eye care providers, acquired Insight Vision Group, a Los Angeles-based ophthalmology group. https://www.uvpeye.com/ 

Varsity Healthcare Partners, a Los Angeles-based lower middle market healthcare services private equity, formed a new investment platform, United Aesthetics Alliance, via the acquisition of Minneapolis-based Edina Plastic Surgery, Edina Surgery Center, and Skin Artisans. https://varsityhealthcarepartners.com/

• Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX) acquired Relievant Medsystems, a Minneapolis-based maker of medical devices for back pain, for $850m in upfront cash and undisclosed earnouts. Relievant had raised around $270m in VC funding from firms like Canaan Partners and NEA. https://axios.link/3t4dXEw 

• Avel eCare, a portfolio company of Aquiline Capital Partners, acquired Fident Health, a Texas-based virtual hospitalist provider whose backers included New Capital Partners. https://www.avelecare.com/

5. Deals o' the day

• Christopher Aguwa left a position as VP and head of growth at Cityblock Health to become CCO of Lane Health. https://lanehealth.com/

• Margaret Wang left a post as executive director and head of Bridgewater Associates Singapore to become a managing partner at Recharge Capital. https://www.rechargecapital.com/

• Marina Lee left a post as director of M&A at DocGo to become vice president at Kain Capital. www.kaincap.com

• Michael Cherny left as post as managing director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch to become senior managing director at Leerink Partners. https://www.leerink.com/

6. It's Personnel

 🚑 Zocdoc CEO: We want to be health care's "connective tissue" — Axios

🤖 How generative AI could improve care — Forbes

📝 Health care: Transparency bill outlook — Axios

💪 How Epic took over the hospital EHR market — Modern Healthcare

7. Your daily dose

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🏈 🍕 Aaron finished his weekend by making homemade bacon and mushroom pizza topped with fried eggs while watching the Dolphins move to 2-0.

🏅 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.

September 19, 2023

1 big thing: Mural enrolls $8M for clinical trials tech