Zoë Barry

What’s Investable in Healthcare Right Now Yesterday I spent the afternoon at the Nashville Health Care Council Sessions event, surrounded by healthcare investors from across the spectrum: venture capital, lower middle market private equity, sovereign wealth funds (QIA), and Wall Street, discussing what’s truly investable in healthcare right now. A few clear themes emerged: 1. Profitability and strategy matter more than ever. Investors want companies that know their lane and stick to it. That means shedding unprofitable service lines, focusing on sustainable margins, and aligning business strategy with the policy environment. (Policy and strategy are inextricably linked!) 2. The Medicare pivot is here. With the last baby boomers aging into Medicare in 2029, the focus is shifting. The growth story is no longer about MA enrollment, it’s about controlling costs throughout the Medicare lifespan. Chronic kidney disease, orthopedics, home health, and specialty pharmacy are hot spots of excess spend. 3. Technology is the bridge to sustainability. AI tools that cut administrative burden, alleviate provider burnout, and help employers manage costs are investable today. LLMs are now table stakes, and it’s nonnegotiable to adopt these technologies, while recognizing the products will look very different in 3–5 years. 4. Consolidation and restructuring will happen.  Home health is ripe for roll-ups, payors are the most likely buyers for healthcare IT, and large “pay-viders” (I hate that term) may need to divest of provider assets as Medicare Advantage economics change. Partnerships with strategics are more attractive than traditional PE playbooks. The bottom line: margins are compressing and labor will have to be cut, but technology will carry the industry across the chasm. Ultimately, investors are backing companies with the experience, network, and conviction to lead through this environment, "not just tourists who heard that healthcare was a fun place to visit” (quote of the day by Marcus Whitney).

56

3 Comments

I’m excited to announce that Actions Capital (fka K50 Ventures) has doubled down on Nitra in their Series B from our growth platform. I’ve known Tim Hwang for 10+ years (big s/o to the Kairos Fellowship) and watched him build and IPO FiscalNote with his co-founder Jonathan Chen.  So, when they came to me with a clear mission: to re-build the financial operating system for healthcare, it was an easy yes. The plan and mission sounded very similar to our investments in ValonOS and Bilt, but in the healthcare industry, a $5T industry where 1 in every 6 dollars spent in the U.S. goes to healthcare. We were their first check pre-launch and they launched at the end of 2023, and in the years since, Nitra’s traction and growth have been remarkable, surpassing $35M in revenue and $1B in total payment volume by the end of 2025. However what’s more impressive is how quickly they have built their product layer cake to fix the broken healthcare industry. Today, Nitra is rapidly becoming the system of record for how doctors operate financially in the largest industry in the U.S. As healthcare financial operations continue to consolidate, payments, procurement, and workflows are converging into a single vertical fintech + AI platform purpose-built for providers. It’s a big bet and providers are already speaking with their dollars. I’m excited to see how Nitra will continue transforming the U.S. healthcare industry and ready for the long and fun road ahead. Congrats to Tim, Jonathan, and the whole team! If you want to partner or looking to join a great team, DM me.

13

🧬 This week’s Austin Bio & Health Roundup has funding, recognition, regional momentum, & new PitchBook healthtech data giving us a peek under the hood of the sector. 🧬 💰 Funding & Capital Signals Hello Patient, a conversational AI platform for clinics, closed a $22.5M Series A led by Scale Venture Partners and included participation from Austin-based 8VC, who also joined their seed round. You need to check out their announcement video. Alex is in top form! 🚀 Launches, Expansions, Milestones, and Wins A second piece of Hello Patient news. They launched their platform into veterinary practices as well. 📊 Data PitchBook published an Emerging Tech Research report on Healthtech VC Trends. In 1H 2025, healthtech startups raised $8B, putting it on pace to beat 2023 and 2024 and possibly 2022. Exits are at $4.9B, suggesting this could be the highest year since 2021. Top 5 subsectors over the last 12 months: • Telehealth: $3.2B over 174 deals • EHRs & Clinical Information and Analytics: $2.2B over 76 deals • Care Management: $2.2B over 113 deals • Operations: $1.7B over 84 deals • Analytics: $1.4B over 104 deals 🏆 Recognition Phantom Neuro featured in "25 Healthcare Devices I Fell in Love With" on David Shulkin’s blog. Shulkin is the former U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs. 🤠 Texas Bio Triangle Houston: The Rice Biotech Launch Pad announced another investment, this time from Houston-based Carnrite Ventures. Houston funding Houston! What’s Next? 🤠 🚀 🦾 🧬

16

Search Engines and LLMs have value because they are the origin point of the query. If you don’t have to manually enter the query though typing or voice the starting line for who gets to keep the finders fee moves. First to consciencess thought and eventually to subconscious preawareness. All queries are a cry for help to reduce “suffering”, an attempt to augment our domain over reality QUICKER. First principles: recognition and context in brains and AIs always precedes query.

8