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Uber Health to roll out new caregiving solution to simplify benefits, logistics for families
Uber Health will begin rolling out a new solution designed for caregivers this summer, the company announced at its annual product event Wednesday.
Uber Caregiver will allow individuals to add a caregiver to their Uber profile. That caregiver can then see and spend that person’s health benefits on eligible services, request rides to doctors’ appointments or order groceries. The caregiver will get real-time updates along the way and have access to a chat feature to communicate with the Uber driver as needed.
CloudMD to be taken private by CPS Capital
Vancouver-based healthtech company CloudMD has entered into an agreement to be taken private by Toronto-based private equity firm CPS Capital.
CloudMD said the transaction is a result of a review the company has been performing since July 2023 due to its liquidity issues after a large number of acquisitions over the past four years. As a result, it was unable to generate positive cash flow while making debt repayments or find “reasonable” refinancing options.
The transaction will see CPS acquire all of CloudMD’s outstanding common shares for $0.04 CAD each, paying out around $12 million to shareholders. CPS Capital partner Mike Arblaster told BetaKit that with CloudMD’s “multiple layers of debt and cash flow needs,” the deal is valued closer to $36 million.
(BetaKit)
U.S. medical testing giant Quest Diagnostics close to acquiring LifeLabs, sources say
Secaucus, N.J.-based Quest Diagnostics is in the final stages of negotiations to buy LifeLabs from the Ontario Municipal Employees’ Retirement System (OMERS), after an auction that played out over more than six months, according to two sources familiar with the process.
Quest has outbid Toronto-based Andlauer Healthcare Group by $100-million to buy the business for more than $1.3-billion, according to one of the sources.
Meet the founder who wants to expedite Parkinson’s patient care with her tech
Bronwyn Bridges, a scientist and entrepreneur from Newfoundland, has raised more than $2.5 million to help people living with Parkinson’s disease get treatment faster.
BetaKit hopped on a call with Bridges to learn more about the software she developed, why Canadian healthtech companies prioritize FDA approval over Health Canada, and her experience as a young, female founder.
(BetaKit)
NovaResp Raises $3M
NovaResp, the Halifax developer of technology for treating sleep apnea, has raised a $3 million seed extension round that CEO Hamed Hanafi expects to fund the company through completion of its clinical trials.
The deal builds on a $2 million round NovaResp closed in Dec. 2022 and is led by board member Dr. Neil Smith, along with returning investors Concrete Ventures and Invest Nova Scotia.
Vantage Points: Hear from four founders on the state of Canadian tech
What happens when you bring old and new generations of tech into the same room?
BetaKit has compiled a series of Q&As from an early-stage founder, a scaling founder, a seasoned repeat founder, and a newcomer to the ecosystem who spoke at last week’s BetaKit Town Hall.
MedEssist’s Joella Almeida spoke on why being the ‘Shopify for Pharmacies’ is not enough.
Cohere co-founder Ivan Zhang expressed why Canadian tech is great at creating winners, but terrible at keeping them here.
Serial entrepreneur Ali Asaria warned tech about getting lost in its own “bubble” and how the ecosystem can beat the US.
Learn from 22-year-old Jocelyne Murphy, who spoke to the lack of meaningful mentorship for young entrepreneurs, frustrating hiring practices, and how the cost of living gets in the way of innovation.
(BetaKit)
Neuralink’s First Patient: ‘It Blows My Mind So Much’
For the first time, Noland Arbaugh explains how Elon Musk’s brain implant, which allows him to control a computer with his thoughts, has changed his life.
Q1 Canadian VC funding posts mixed results as PE market rebounds, CVCA reports
The first quarter of 2024 saw mixed results in terms of venture capital funding and a significant pickup in private equity activity, according to a new report.
Nearly $1.3 billion CAD in total VC financing was deployed into Canadian technology startups across 128 deals during Q1, per data collected by the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association. Both declined relative to Q4 2023.
In terms of total dollars invested, this represented an eight percent increase relative to the first quarter of 2023, fuelled by financings from artificial intelligence startups like Ideogram, Spellbook, and Borderless AI, healthtech companies including PocketHealth and Flosonics Medical, FinTech firm Helcim, and last-mile delivery provider UniUni.
(BetaKit)
Dietitian startup Fay has been booming from Ozempic patients and emerges from stealth with $25M from General Catalyst, Forerunner
For years, Sammy Faycurry has been hearing from his registered dietitian (RD) mom and sister about how poorly many Americans eat and their struggles with delivering nutritional counseling.
He began working on Fay, a startup that connects RDs with insurance providers and patients, when he was an MBA student at Harvard Business School in 2021.
On Wednesday, Fay emerged from stealth after quietly raising $25 million from General Catalyst and Forerunner Ventures, with participation from 1984 and the founders of Grow Therapy and Maven Clinic.
The so-called business-in-box gives practitioners, such as dietitians and therapists, the tools for running their practices, including filing claims with insurance, receiving payments and being matched with patients.
The best place to aim AI? The mirror
Zoho Canada recently hosted a webinar on the topic of generative AI in business intelligence and how the tool can be deployed to make organizations more data-driven.
The discussion offered four key insights for startups thinking about applying generative AI within their operations, and featured Matt Aslett, director of research, data, and analytics at Information Services Group’s Ventana Research, and Zoho Canada’s Chandrashekar Lalapet Srinivas Prasanna.
(BetaKit)