In what feels like a counterweight to the ongoing discussion of the relatively few women partners in venture capital, a new digital health investment firm has raised a $10.7 million fund. It’s led by angel investor Enmi Sung Kendall and Anya Schiess, who previously worked as vice president of strategy and business development at Cardinal Health, and is based in San Francisco.
Healthy Ventures is the latest fund to join in the healthcare investment fray, according to a short article from Fortune’s Term Sheet newsletter, which cited the firm’s Form D filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Kendall also founded ReplyForAll, a consumer email signature product that provided a way for users to donate for free to their favorite cause through email. It closed in 2011, but Kendall shares some insights she gained from the experience on her LinkedIn page. Schiess also worked in sales and marketing at Medtronic.
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In a phone interview with MedCity News, Kendall said the average size of investments it will make will range from $250,000 to $1.5 million.
“As a rule of thumb we will stick with companies that are really young. It’s a rule of thumb so it’s not ironclad. We will be somewhat opportunistic, but we will spend the bulk of our time looking at seed stage investment [opportunities].”
If Kendall’s previous investments are anything to go by, some of the firm’s investment priorities include interactive interventions for chronic conditions, big data analytics and clinical admin. Kendall’s LinkedIn page highlights some of the early stage investments she made in recent years, including: Elation EMR, Amplify Health, Omada Health, Reach Analytics and portable ultrasound startup, Mobisante. For her part, one company on Schiess’ radar from her days at Thomas McNerney was Invitae, a genetics testing company for which she participated in a seed and an institutional round. It recently went public (NYSE: NVTA).
Kendall who serves as a mentor to the Sprint mobile health accelerator run by Tech Stars, said one source of interest is mobile tools in the area of continuous care and behavior change. Another is market automation solutions for providers in response to more consumer-directed healthcare.
Last year venture capital firms poured $4 billion into digital health investments, according to a Rock Health report. More Qualcomm and Novartis launched a digital health fund in January called dRx Capital. Other investors have said digital health investments will figure into current funds or make up a larger part of new funds.
Update: This story has been updated from an earlier version.
