Astarte Ventures is the first venture fund that is focused solely on companies dedicated to the well-being of women and children.
At MedCity News’ INVEST conference this week, Astarte partner Tracy Warren spoke to us about why this is primary focus and the kind of companies the fund looks to work with.
Behavioral Health, Interoperability and eConsent: Meeting the Demands of CMS Final Rule Compliance
In a webinar on April 16 at 1pm ET, Aneesh Chopra will moderate a discussion with executives from DocuSign, Velatura, and behavioral health providers on eConsent, health information exchange and compliance with the CMS Final Rule on interoperability.
Warren and her team (all women) were traditional VCs previously, but decided to create Astarte to, as she puts it, have more of a purpose, specifically with serving women and children in underserved areas.
She explained that statistically it is really difficult for female-oriented products to get that critical stage of funding needed for them to actually be developed, and that’s partly due to the fact that male investors tend to not feel comfortable talking about some of these specific needs and issues – like sexual health and menopause for example.
Also, statistically, women make the majority of healthcare decisions for families, so it is really a critical market to tap into. “Even though the majority of health decisions come from women in this country, so much of the investing is done by men on their behalf,” Warren said in an earlier interview.
Astarte is primarily focused on working with companies that are dedicated to creating a way for women to be proactive with their lifestyles for themselves and their children.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Some examples include Lully, a company that has created a non-medication solution for children who have night terrors. There’s also Naya, an innovative breast pump developer that uses hydraulics instead of suction.
Currently Astarte is invested in six different companies with a seventh soon to be announced.
Photo: Flickr user Ian
