An Overview of Our Funds Supporting Digital Health Innovation
An Introduction to our Series on Digital Health
At Earlybird, we take pride in our platform approach that allows us to develop deep expertise in different areas, to be on the ground in different regions, and to have access to the best founding teams early on.
Overall, we have four funds: UNI-X for pre-seed investments in Western Europe, Digital West for early stage investments in Western Europe, Digital East for early stage investments in Emerging Europe, and Health for investments in the healthcare space.
However, since our Digital West fund also looks at some digital health investments, people sometimes seek clarity in distinguishing between the Health fund and the Digital West fund, especially regarding digital health topics.
We aim to differentiate these two funds better in a brief introductory overview.
Let’s start with our Health fund: they are a pan-European fund with a focus on measurably improving medical treatments and care. As a result, they invest across med-tech, biopharma, diagnostics, tools and enabling tech, as well as digital health. The team has deep experience in the medical field with backgrounds in areas such as molecular or synthetic biology, biophysics, or regenerative medicine.
Their portfolio companies include firms like INNOVO by Atlantic Therapeutics, Priothera, iSTAR Medical, and Noscendo (full overview of the portfolio can be found here). Within the digital health space, our Health fund is mostly looking for products that require clinical validation for regulatory approval and follow the reimbursement route. Thus, their portfolio company OVIVA fits very well into their digital health thesis.
Within the digital health space, our Health fund is mostly looking for products that require clinical validation for regulatory approval and follow the reimbursement route.
Our Digital West fund, on the other hand, looks at digital health investments from a digital product angle and is thus more interested in topics such as consumer health, healthcare marketplaces or B2B SaaS in healthcare. This focus is represented by our investment in the medicine delivery service MAYD.
Key for the Digital West fund is that companies have a sustainable competitive advantage and are highly scalable.
Key for the Digital West fund is that companies have a sustainable competitive advantage and are highly scalable. As a result, the markets are often less regulated and the business models place less importance on reimbursement, compared to the companies that the Health fund focuses on.
So, while both funds are interested in digital health, they have a different focus within the space. However, both funds work closely together so that our portfolio founders can be sure to benefit from the knowledge and network of each of our funds, as this is what lies behind our platform approach. If some digital health topics hover at the intersection of both funds, we would be happy to jointly invest in the company.
We hope this brief introduction helps shed light on our digital health coverage. Follow along as we continue to publish deeper insights into the digital health space.
