As a first-generation American, I saw my non-English speaking grandparents face barriers to healthcare, from language to culture to insurance status. Growing up, my parents, brother, and I translated for my grandparents at doctor’s appointments and sat by their side advocating for them. But when my grandpa (“Gong Gong”) was suddenly hospitalized during the pandemic, the hospital restricted all visitors. My family couldn’t translate and advocate for Gong Gong like we normally could. We felt helpless.
Our hearts broke when we lost our Gong Gong to pneumonia. To this day, we wonder if we should have ever sent him to the hospital in the first place. I kept thinking, “Gong Gong deserves better. Nobody deserves to be alone in a hospital for 2 weeks with no ability to eat, drink, or see his family. What could we have done differently?” I committed myself to doing whatever it took to ensure others wouldn’t have to suffer the same way that my grandpa and family did.
My “why” or north star is inspired by these personal experiences. To me, health equity means quality, compassionate healthcare for all, regardless of your background. I strive to enable accessibility and affordability for all populations. That is why I am so excited about joining the Zeal Capital Partners team as Principal leading our health equity investments in seed to Series A stage companies.
To address health equity, we need to invest in solutions from all parts of the country, from founders impacted by the problem, from teams with diverse backgrounds and lived experiences related to the communities they serve. These founders can tap into their experiences to listen, empathize, and establish trust. We also need to tie the mission to the margin. Building the right business model and go-to-market strategy to scale impact is key. The solutions should increase the bottom line for major healthcare stakeholders including payers, providers, pharmaceutical companies, and employers; they should be both financially and socially impactful.
A year ago, I met Nasir and we aligned deeply on mission and the vision for the health equity vertical. Soon after, I met Graham McLaughlin, our Health Equity Executive-in-Residence, who brings 20+ years of experience operating in healthcare at UnitedHealthcare, Advisory Board, and consulting. Graham’s experience operating at large healthcare companies complements my background in healthcare investing, investment banking, and operating at early-stage digital health startups. Together, we have identified four core investment sub-categories within health equity with significant unmet need, demand and a strong supply of early-stage companies building in the space:
- Access & Affordability of Care: We plan to invest in companies that improve access and affordability of care. These include but are not limited to solutions that increase access and affordability of care for the Medicaid/dual eligible, Commercial, Medicare and uninsured populations, solutions that tackle healthcare payments and medical debt, solutions that expand access to life-saving medications and clinical trials, care for rural populations, and care for disabled populations. We also plan to invest in solutions that address chronic conditions that disproportionately impact underserved populations.
- Women’s Health: We look to invest in evidence-based care models that improve health outcomes for women across the whole lifetime, from fertility to maternity (including prenatal and postpartum care) to menopause and senior care. We will also look to invest in solutions that address chronic conditions that disproportionately impact women.
- Mental Health & Wellness: The pandemic shed a light on the importance of mental health, with the global prevalence of anxiety and depression increasing by 25% in the first year of the pandemic. We will look to invest in new solutions and technologies targeting a wide range of conditions, including anxiety, depression, insomnia, trauma, substance use, along with serious mental illness (SMI), developmental disorders, pediatric mental/behavioral health and companies that aim to reduce stress and improve well-being.
- Social Determinants of Health: Social determinants of health (SDOH) are nonmedical factors that can account for 80% of health outcomes, but are often unaddressed by the traditional healthcare system. We will look to invest in companies that address non-healthcare issues such as transportation, healthy food availability, affordable housing, access to benefits, caregivers and more.
Zeal Capital Partners aims to invest in early-stage companies that are turbocharging economic mobility. Expanding into health equity has always been part of the founding plan of Zeal Capital Partners. We see health equity as a natural extension to our existing investment categories of financial inclusion and the future of work and learning. After all, in order to reach our full wealth potential, we first need to ensure we reach our full health potential.
If you are a mission-driven Seed to Series A healthcare startup founder or simply share an interest in health equity, I’d love to chat with you! I love meeting founders building innovative solutions to address healthcare challenges, making connections to other innovators and investors in the ecosystem, and nerding out about the latest trends. You can reach me at emily@zealvc.co.