San Francisco’s Rock Health startup accelerator held its fourth semi-annual Demo Day at UCSF’s Genentech Hall Wednesday afternoon. Investors and journalists heard pitches from 14 startups working to introduce new health-related services for consumers and new ways to improve the efficiency of the U.S. healthcare system.
On the consumer side, one intriguing presenter was Beam Technologies, which is building a toothbrush embedded with motion sensors to detect how long a person has been brushing. A Bluetooth radio sends the data to a smartphone app. (Perhaps it should have been called the Bluetoothbrush.)
At the opposite extreme, aiming to introduce software-based improvements that will lower overall healthcare costs, were companies like Eligible, which is building software connectors to make it easier for hospitals to check patients’ insurance eligibility, and CliniCast, which wants to assign patients FICO-like risk scores to help healthcare providers decide how to allocate care.
Rock Health is a competitive, three-month program exposing startup teams to intensive product, design, and business mentorship. Companies admitted to the program receive $100,000 in funding from a group including Aberdare Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the Mayo Clinic, and Mohr Davidow.
Rock Health founder and CEO Halle Tecco said 49 companies have now completed the Rock Health program. They’ve raised a collective $43 million in angel and venture funding, or $900,000 each, on average. According to data from AngelList, the valuations of Rock Health startups are higher than those of startups from all other accelerators except Y Combinator and StartX, Tecco said.
For summaries of the presentations see the photos and captions above. Here’s a list of the companies, with links to their sites:
Beam Technologies
Benefitter*
CliniCast
Eligible
Kit Check
LabDoor
Mango Health*
Moxe Health*
OpenPlacement
SuperBetter*
Wellframe
Wello
Wildflower Health
Zipongo
*Stealth mode companies.
