At Zeal Capital Partners, we are on a mission to continue building the best-in-class and next-generation, mission-driven venture capital franchise.
When I reflect on what is vital in ensuring this continues to hold true, it is ensuring we are hiring and investing in investment professionals who have strong investment acumen, domain expertise, and operational experience that is directly aligned with our investment strategy and above all, aligned with our core values.
I could not be more excited to welcomeEmily Zhen as Principal investor, and an integral part of the Zeal family! After scouring for the best fit healthcare investor for two years, it became clear early on why Emily earned the respect and hearts of founders, investors, and industry leaders through her deep understanding of the healthcare market, healthcare business models, as well as her immense curiosity and tireless work ethic on behalf of portfolio companies.Emily joins our investment team at an inflection point in our firm’s life cycle as we prepare to begin investing across our new expanded vertical, Health Equity.Prior to Zeal, Emily joins us after spending 3.5 years at multistage storied venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA), as a Healthcare Investor in the Menlo Park office. At NEA, Emily backed 20+ deals, deployed over $500 million in capital across incubation to growth stage, and helped her portfolio companies raise over $2 billion.
These companies include senior living care company, Curana Health, a value-based primary care provider that today serves over 1,000 senior living communities in 26 states. Emily helped incubate the business and clinical model, hire the CEO and executive team, and syndicate a $300M equity financing for Curana in late 2020. Within the Musculoskeletal care space, Emily helped source and lead diligence for NEA’s lead investment in the $50M+ Series A in Vori Health, which has built an end-to-end integrated musculoskeletal care platform serving payors, providers, and employers, including Allstate, Whole Health Living, and Physical Rehabilitation Network (PRN), one of the nation’s largest physical therapy providers. She also worked closely with the Strive Health team to scale the kidney care management company from incubation to their $166M Series C financing round that CVS Health Ventures participated in.
Previously, Emily worked at Goldman Sachs within the Healthcare Investment Banking division, and in healthcare operating and clinical research roles.
Expanding into Health Equity is no surprise to us, as it was part of my ideation and larger moonshot vision for Zeal and the investment platform I was eager to build out. I knew in order to turbocharge economic mobility and narrow the wealth and skills gaps, while financial inclusion and the future of work and learning are vital, we could not discount how we think about Health Equity across the country and globe. When Emily and I first connected over a year ago, we immediately began ideating what our firm’s healthcare investment focus should be. In partnership with Graham McLaughlin, Zeal’s Executive in Residence for Health Equity who brings 20+ years of healthcare operating experience from UnitedHealthcare and Advisory Board, our team concluded on our four strategic investment pillars of i.) access and affordability of care, ii.) women’s health, iii.) mental health and wellness and iv.) social determinants of health (SDoH). Each of these pillars has a massive TAM and unmet market need.
In addition to her role as Principal at Zeal, Zhen will continue to serve as healthcare co-lead for Emerging Venture Capitalists Association (EVCA) and as an advisor for Gold Rush, an Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) startup accelerator.
When Emily is not jamming out on Healthcare you can find her immersed in nature, tackling her 26 hikes in one year (roughly one every other week) goal!
The entire Zeal team is thrilled to welcome Emily to our growing organization, as we work together to build a best-in-class venture capital firm, anchored by our Inclusive Investing™ strategy. Please join me in extending a warm welcome to Emily and congratulating her on her new role as Principal.
Welcome to the Zeal family, Emily!