Cedars-Sinai Technology Ventures launches new fund, Commure raises $200M, and Novo Nordisk breaks from Hims

Healthtech and edtech are two of the fastest growing sectors, with the healthtech market size to reach $3.1 billion by 2033, while the global education technology market size is projected to reach $348.41 billion by 2030.

Each week will do a roundup of the top news, fundings, and IPOs from these two sectors.

Top News

• Novo Nordisk announced that the company will no longer be working with Hims & Hers Health and that direct access to Wegovy will no longer be available to Hims & Hers Health via NovoCare Pharmacy. Over one month into the collaboration, the company said that Hims & Hers Health “has failed to adhere to the law which prohibits mass sales of compounded drugs under the false guise of “personalization” and are disseminating deceptive marketing that put patient safety at risk.”

• A federal appeals court ruled unanimously in favor of a coalition of Louisiana parents who sued to block a state law that requires public schools and colleges to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms. The appellate court’s decision upholds a lower court’s ruling in November declaring Louisiana’s law “facially unconstitutional.” Now, the case moves closer to potentially going before the U.S. Supreme Court

AI News

• Aidoc announced the release of BRIDGE, a new open-source framework developed to help healthcare organizations deploy AI safely, effectively and at scale. Developed by Aidoc in collaboration with NVIDIA, the BRIDGE framework reflects the combined insights of health systems, clinicians and technology leaders working at the front lines of AI adoption

• Hippocratic AI, a provider of safety-focused generative AI agents for healthcare, and Universal Health Services announced that they jointly deployed GenAI agents that support clinicians by making discharge follow up outreach to patients by phone

• The Health AI Assurance Laboratory at UMass Chan Medical School partnered with Red Cell Partners, an incubator and investment firm, to test and certify artificial intelligence products aimed at enhancing health care innovation and regulatory compliance. The agreement makes UMass Chan an established member of Red Cell’s Partners Advancing Critical Technologies program and allows UMass Chan to evaluate select AI health care products from Red Cell’s portfolio

• Intermountain Health partnered with Layer Health, a company that utilizes AI and large language models to streamline medical chart reviews, deploying its AI for clinical data abstraction to improve its quality reporting and clinical registry submissions in stroke, surgery and cardiovascular disease

• Abridge, a generative AI platform for clinical conversations, expanded its capabilities to support inpatient care settings and queue up outpatient orders, extending the value of clinical conversations through additional integrated workflows as part of Workshop, a program through which Epic and Abridge have worked together to develop new healthcare technologies that are piloted and refined before wider release

• Ochsner Health, a nonprofit healthcare provider in the Gulf South, and Latent, a company scaling medication access with clinical AI, expanded their partnership, formalizing their relationship to scale Latent’s platform enterprise-wide and fuel future innovation together

• UnitedHealthcare launched Smart Choice, an AI0enhanced provider search capability designed to helps members more easily find and access care with providers who meet criteria based in part on nationally recognized standards. Members can also access board certification status and consumer ratings and reviews with Smart Choice

• Simplify Healthcare, a provider of enterprise software solutions for Payers, announced Xperience1, a solution designed to transform the benefits inquiry experience for health plan members, providers, brokers, and other stakeholders. The CX platform delivers clear, real-time, plain-language responses to complex benefit questions—across all channels and user roles

Late Stage Fundings

Healthtech

• Commure, an enterprise Al healthcare technology company powering next-generation infrastructure for providers, raised $200 million in growth financing from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund

• Tennr, a company that built an orchestration platform and language models designed to automate the labor-intensive workflows of referral-based care, raised a $101 million Series C led by IVP, with participation from new and existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed, GV, ICONIQ, Foundation Capital, and Frank Slootman

• Nabla, an AI assistant for clinical care, raised $70 million in a Series C funding round led by HV Capital, with Highland Europe joining as key investor, DST Global, and existing investors Cathay Innovation and Tony Fadell’s Build Collective

• Visby Medical, a provider of rapid, at-home polymerase chain reaction diagnostics, raised approximately $55 million in a round led by Catalio Capital Management, with participation from existing investors including ND Capital, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Blue Water Life Science Advisors, Pitango Ventures and John Doerr

• Corvia Medical, a company dedicated to transforming heart failure care, raised $55 from the company’s existing investment syndicate of Third Rock Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, AccelMed, Lumira Ventures, and two strategic investors

• Sword Health, an AI Care company, raised a $40 million funding round at a $4 billion valuation, led by General Catalyst

• Arima Genomics, a company leveraging whole-genome sequence and structure information to provide comprehensive cancer therapy selection insights, raised a $22 million Series C financing led by Illumina Ventures

• GeneCentric Therapeutics, a company making precision medicine more precise through gene expression, raised $8 million in a Series C funding round led by Hatteras Venture Partners, with current participation from existing investors IAG Capital Partners, Alexandria Venture Investments, and Labcorp

Early Stage Fundings

Healthtech:

• Glytec, a provider of an AI-powered technology platform for diabetes and related conditions, raised a $36 million growth investment led by Savitr Capital and Hayfin Capital Management

• HOPPR, a company revolutionizing how AI imaging applications are built, validated, and deployed, raised $31.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Kivu and Greycroft, with participation from PSG Equity, Morningside Capital, Fortitude Ventures, and existing investor Health 2047

• Ambulatory infusion provider Local Infusion raised a $30 million Series B led by Transformation Capital

• BM Respiratory Care, a medical technology company focused on developing and globally commercializing novel airway clearance and ventilation solutions, raised $14.8 million in a round led by Peter Soderberg, ABMRC’s Chairman of the Board, along with participation from Bluwave Capital

• Faction Imaging, a company developing AI-native imaging technologies, raised $10 million from Nodenza Venture Partners

• Veracity, a modern metabolic health company focused on addressing the root causes of metabolic dysfunction, raised a $6 million funding round led by Maveron and Melitas Ventures

Edtech:

• Acorn, an AI-native performance and learning management system, raised $16.8 million in Series A funding in a round led by Level Equity

• Galaxy Education, a Vietnamese education technology company, raised nearly $10 million in funding from East Ventures and other investors

Seed Fundings

Healthtech:

• DESKi, a healthtech company developing AI-powered diagnostic tools in collaboration with clinicians and researchers, raised a $6 million seed round led by Racine, with participation from BNP Paribas Développement, Épopée Gestion, Good Only Ventures, Better Angle, and NACO

• RevelAi Health, a conversational artificial intelligence platform built for musculoskeletal care, raised a $3.1 million seed round led by Ulu Ventures and Symphonic Capital, with participation from Orthopedic VC, Sand Hill Angels, and a consortium of nationally recognized orthopedic surgeons

• Droplet IV, developer of an automatic IV-line flushing device, raised $2 million from the former executive of ConvaTec, members of experienced MedTech family offices, and seasoned angel investors with nursing and clinical backgrounds

• Koios Care, a health technology company focused on improving the quality of life for people living with neurological and chronic conditions, raised a €1 million funding round led by Evercurious VC, with strong participation from Astylab Ventures, imec.istart fund and several private angel investors, coordinated by HeBAN

Edtech:

• Lumion, a provider of an operating system for career and trade schools, raised $10.7 million in seed funding led by TTV capital with participation from Tusk Venture Partners, CreativeCo Capital, Nine Four Ventures, Innovating Capital, and the State of Wyoming

• AI-powered childcare management startup illumine raised $2.5 million in a seed funding round from Prime Venture Partners

Fund News

• Zanichelli Editore, a Bologna-based publishing house with a 166-year legacy, announced the launch of ZNEXT, a €60 million initiative aimed at fueling the growth of EdTech businesses with investments of up to €150k in initial pre-Seed per company

• Owl Ventures, the world’s largest venture capital firm focused on education technology with over $2 billion in assets under management, announced that veteran technology executive and investor Lars Fjeldsoe-Nielsen joined the firm as a General Partner

• Cedars-Sinai Technology Ventures launched Coronet Ventures Netherlands, a new venture fund that will invest in health and life sciences startups in the Netherlands

Policy and government

• A federal judge in Massachusetts ruled that directives from the Trump administration that led to the cancellations of several research grants from the National Institutes of Health were “void” and “illegal.” U.S. District Judge William Young said the cancellation of the grants — related to studies involving LGBTQ+ issues, gender identity and diversity, equity and inclusion– violated federal law, saying it was a case of racial discrimination and discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community, according to the plaintiffs in the case. Young, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, said he was ordering the NIH to restore the grants that were terminated.

Random news

• Scientists at Northwestern University have developed a new algorithm that enables smartwatches to more accurately monitor the calories burned by people with obesity during various physical activities. Current activity-monitoring algorithms that fitness trackers use were built for people without obesity. Hip-worn trackers often misread energy burn because of gait changes and device tilt in people with higher body weight, Alshurafa said. And lastly, wrist-worn models promise better comfort, adherence and accuracy across body types, but no one has rigorously tested or calibrated them for this group. By using data from commercial fitness trackers, the new model rivals gold-standard methods of measuring energy burn and can estimate how much energy someone with obesity is using every minute, achieving over 95% accuracy in real-world situations.

(Image source: cohealthinitiative.org)