H|T: The Healthtech Times – Ora Medical gets the BDC Bump

Ora Medical Startupfest
Sarah Lambert, co-founder and CEO, at Startupfest 2023.
Plus: Halifax's 3D BioFibR secures $3.52M for automated collagen fibre manufacturing.

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3D BioFibR secures $3.52 million in seed funding for automated collagen fibre manufacturing (BETAKIT)

Halifax-based 3D BioFibR, which offers an automated system for collagen-fibre manufacturing, has raised $3.52 million in seed funding and contributions from government agencies.

3D BioFibR said its manufacturing process can generate collagen scaffolds that are ideal for 3D cell culture and tissue-engineering applications. CollaFibR, the collagen fibre manufactured from 3D BioFibR’s system, can be used as an artificial tendon for soft-tissue repair research.


TPG strikes $1.4B deal to buy EHR, practice management software firm Nextech (FIERCE HEALTHCARE)

Asset management firm TPG is buying healthcare IT company Nextech from Thomas H. Lee Partners for $1.4 billion, the company announced Wednesday.

Tampa, Florida-based Nextech provides electronic medical record and practice management software to specialty physician practices, serving over 11,000 physicians and 60,000 office staff members.


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Startupfest 2023 awards Hutsy twice while Ora Medical receives BDC prize match (BETAKIT)

Physical-therapy focused Ora Medical won the $100,000 Women in Tech prize at Startupfest's 2023 awards. The award was presented by The Firehood, an angel network that focuses on supporting women in the technology sector.

Additionally, the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) matched the prize with another $100,000 and offered to match audience investment, totalling over $300,000 as a result.


Unicorn K Health raises $59 million in down round (CTECH)

K Health has received a $59 million round for its platform that uses AI to combine professional medical knowledge with patient clinical data.

Valed at $1.4 billion in 2021, K health provides doctors and users with information about the diagnoses and treatments of others with similar symptoms and conditions.


Venture funding in Toronto, British Columbia rebounds in second quarter of 2023 (BETAKIT)

Following a sluggish start to the year, two of Canada’s largest tech ecosystems saw a resurgence in venture funding in the second quarter of 2023, according to new data from briefed.in.

Mostly thanks to a handful of very large deals, tech startups in Toronto raised a cumulative $1 billion in Q2, up 733 percent from Q1 2023 and up 71 percent year-over-year. A similar story unfolded further west. BC’s tech startups raised $639.6 million in Q2, which represents a 573 percent increase quarter-over-quarter and a 213 percent increase year-over-year.


Preparation over panic: How a Boston hospital is priming medical residents for an era of AI medicine (STAT)

Overall, the residents were impressed with GPT-4’s performance, but quickly noticed several shortcomings. Aaron Troy, a third-year resident, noted that knowing that GPT-4’s information is unreliable and reinforced his biases.

Doctors are used to looking at reliable sources like the medical literature, and knowing it’s right. But when faced with potentially unreliable outputs from generative AI, his gut reaction was to trust the AI most on its ideas that aligned with his own.


Canada’s private tech firms gather to talk AI, growth, global appeal (BETAKIT)

RBC Capital Markets hosted its fourth annual Canadian Private Technology Conference at the end of June, an exclusive gathering in Toronto of more than two dozen executives and founders from 17 tech companies across multiple disciplines and several venture capital firms.

The event culminated with a conversation with keynote guest, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who shared his own entrepreneurial journey and his perspective on the tech and AI landscape today.


Herself Health, providing primary care to women 65 and over, raises $26M (TECHCRUNCH)

Six months after raising a $7 million seed round, Herself Health is back with some additional venture capital, picking up $26 million in Series A funding. The company has now raised $33 million to date.

Along with expanding its footprint, the company is working on improving its offerings, including delivering virtual care so that follow-up visits can be made digitally.


Toronto and Montréal added the most tech jobs in Canada in the last five years: Report (BETAKIT)

Within Canada, Toronto and Montréal added the most tech talent jobs between 2017 and 2022, according to CBRE’s latest Scoring Tech Talent report. In the five-year period, CBRE’s report found that Toronto added 63,800 tech jobs, while Montréal added 51,500.

The report illustrated the emerging tech talent concentration in Canada, with three of the top five North American cities in this category located in Canada: Ottawa, Waterloo, and Toronto.


Report: Canada saw over 30,000 tech workers immigrate while losing nearly 1,700 to the US (BETAKIT)

Canada saw an intake of over 30,000 tech workers from abroad within the last year, a new report from the Technology Councils of North America (TECNA) and Canada’s Tech Network (CTN) found.

Additionally, the report found that Canada “largely” benefits from investment of American tech companies as they expand or relocate to Canada.


Electronic health record maker NextGen Healthcare to pay $31 million to resolve fraud claims (STAT)

The health records company NextGen Healthcare will pay $31 million to resolve allegations that it paid kickbacks to win customers and concealed shortcomings of its software to gain government certification.

The settlement caps a lengthy investigation that cast a harsh light on NextGen’s efforts to gain market share in the sharp-elbowed business of selling electronic health records software.


Here's how much Canada's top public tech company CEOs were paid last year (BETAKIT)

A new report by human capital consulting firm Global Governance Advisors, and shared with the Globe and Mail, maps the compensation of Canada’s top public company CEOs across a variety of industries, determined by their market capitalization.

From Shopify's Tobias Lütke to Opentext's Mark Barrenechea, find out how much these CEOs were making as public tech companies faced a challenging year in 2022.


Startup Sues Athenahealth, Alleging Trade Secret Theft & Deceptive Practices (MEDCITYNEWS)

Digital health startup Dorsata has filed a lawsuit against EHR provider Athenahealth and women’s health company Unified Women’s Healthcare.

The startup alleged that Athenahealth stole trade secrets, used deceptive business practices and breached its contract — and that Unified aided and abetted these purported practices.


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Alex Riehl

Alex Riehl

Alex Riehl is a staff writer and newsletter curator at BetaKit with a Bachelor of Journalism from Carleton University. He's interested in tech, gaming, and sports. You can find out more about him at alexriehl.com or @RiehlAlex99 on Twitter.

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