Dive Brief:
- Google Ventures founder and former CEO Bill Maris is raising funds for a new healthcare venture group.
- Maris will release regulatory filings next week related to a $240 million funding round focused on healthcare, according to a report from technology news website Recode. The filings refer to the fund as “Section 32.”
- Maris left GV — Google parent Alphabet’s venture capital business — in August after eight years at the helm.
Dive Insight:
A neuroscientist by training, Maris guided GV’s backing of a number of health IT startups, including Foundation Health, Flatiron Health, and genetic testing firm 23andMe. He also advocated going public with highly valued startups, so that seed investors and employees could reap the returns on their shares.
Maris hasn’t indicated what health technologies he’ll pursue with the new fund, but shared in the past an interest in cancers and diseases of aging.
GV recently led a $32 million funding round for Nashville-based palliative care provider Aspire Health. The investment is GV’s first in the city, a healthcare hot spot that is home to Hospital Corporation of America and Change Healthcare, among others.
Reforms stemming from the ACA have created a demand for data-driven healthcare, creating a potential goldmine for entrepreneurs. Firms like GV and Maris’ new venture are eager for a piece of the pie. And there’s no shortage of money going into the space, with digital health funding set to exceed last year’s $4.5 billion mark.
It remains to be seen if that pace will continue under a Donald Trump administration or if uncertainty about the future of the ACA and Trump’s healthcare agenda generally will dampen investment — at least in the near term.