TEL AVIV, Israel and CHICAGO, April 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — LionBird, a venture capital firm based in Israel and the U.S. investing in pre-scale digital health companies, today announced the closing of LionBird III, an $85 million fund with participation from several institutional investors, including the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, and leading industry executives. With this new fund, LionBird will invest in 15 to 20 early-stage companies within its core theme of digital health.
“LionBird has a proven track record of investing in innovative teams addressing the gap between the healthcare industry’s stakeholders and currently available technology,” said Shrirang Apte, VP, Credit at HOOPP. “Led by an experienced management team, HOOPP believes LionBird is well-positioned to deliver long-term value for the pensions of our members, and we’re pleased to take a meaningful role in this fund and the evolving digital health space to support patients and healthcare providers.”
Founded in 2012, LionBird has developed an investment strategy around resetting healthcare’s relationship with technology. Much of current health technology isn’t delivering on its promise to generate real value for the health system and has shown little improvement in patient outcomes. LionBird believes that the next era of technology in healthcare will be focused on creating measurable clinical value and benefitting patients and providers alike.
“At LionBird, our general partners have all played a variety of roles in healthcare throughout their careers, making us well aware of the complexity involved in healthcare product adoption,” LionBird’s general partners said in a joint statement. “And yet, we’re still idealists. We believe technology will play a key role in shaping the future of healthcare – transforming how care is delivered, diagnosed, and treated – and we’re continually encouraged in this belief as we see the waves of new and promising interdisciplinary talent entering the domain. With the closing of LionBird III, we are more equipped than ever to help these exceptional founders lay the best foundations for their companies to scale and succeed.”
With the LionBird team’s extensive operating and investing experience in digital health, success in its previous funds and deep understanding of healthcare stakeholders, LionBird is uniquely positioned to invest in and support promising early-stage digital health startups as they scale into leading global corporations. To bolster these efforts in LionBird III, the fund has expanded its investment team with the addition of two new partners: Robert Lord, previously co-founder and President at Protenus, a leading AI health IT compliance company from LionBird’s second fund, and Gal Noyman-Veksler, PhD, a healthcare AI business executive and a venture experienced behavioral researcher, who was promoted from principal.
“The LionBird team is an amazing group of people combining real-life business understanding with a ‘co-founder’ approach,” said Dedi Gilad, CEO and co-founder at Tyto Care, a LionBird I portfolio company bringing the traditional doctor’s physical exam to the home. “As one of Tyto’s earliest investors, LionBird’s support has been indispensable to the company’s success, and I’m excited to watch the team use this new, larger fund to further support digital health founders throughout their journeys.”
To date, LionBird has invested in more than 30 companies including digital health leaders such as Tyto Care, Ovia Health (acquired by LabCorp), C2i Genomics, Assured Allies, Protenus, Kit Check, Theranica, Laguna Health and Rhino Health.
To learn more about LionBird or to contact the team, visit www.lionbird.com.
About LionBird
LionBird is a venture capital firm investing in pre-scale digital health companies with operations in Tel Aviv and the U.S. Founded in 2012 by veteran entrepreneurs and Fortune 100 executives in the software and healthcare industries, LionBird provides capital and assistance to mission-driven teams realigning the human-technology relationship in healthcare. Since its inception, the firm has invested in more than 30 founding teams across the U.S. and Israel. The firm is currently investing out of its third fund, LionBird III, exclusively focused on early-stage digital health.