Here’s the big question of the day: VIVE or HIMSS or both? Jess and I offer our thoughts on both conferences and which ones we’re going to. Some deals in the past few days: ModMed buys Klara for $200 million; Nayaa raises $55 million; Sanofi and Dario Health have a $30 million deal; Ro acquires Dadi, an in-home sperm testing company; Daybreak Health raises $10 million—Matthew Holt

TRANSCRIPT

Jessica DaMassa:

All right, Matthew Holt, the big question of the day: ViVE or HIMSS or both? Ugh.

Matthew Holt:

Or neither?

Jessica DaMassa:

Hey, that’s the way to do it. It’s the March 3rd episode of Health Tech Deals.

Matthew Holt:

So, Jessica, I thought the big question was State of the Union versus invading Ukraine versus .. No, no, it’s all about ViVE versus HIMSS?

Jessica DaMassa:

ViVE versus HIMSS.

Matthew Holt:

Well, I’m going to ViVE, I think you are too.

Jessica DaMassa:

Going to ViVE. Are you going to HIMSS?

Matthew Holt:

No. First one I missed in years

Jessica DaMassa:

Well, you were banned last year, effectively.

Matthew Holt:

I don’t think I’ve officially been banned. The person who said I was going to be banned has now quit.

Jessica DaMassa:

Is no longer working there.

Matthew Holt:

So who knows? But the interesting thing is HIMSS says, according to HIStalk, HIMSS says they’ve sold nearly a thousand booths, which is about what they were going to do. ViVE seems to be quite busy, quite hard to got a hotel room, especially if your Airbnb cancels on you because of COVID.

Jessica DaMassa:

Right.

Matthew Holt:

Yesterday, as mine did. I may be sleeping on the beach.

Jessica DaMassa:

Which is, I think, just a falsehood because there is no COVID in Florida.

Matthew Holt:

Yeah. COVID apparently is over. It barely, It kind of got a mention in the State of the Union, but kind of.

Jessica DaMassa:

Kind of, schmind of.

Matthew Holt:

And we’re going to have more testing and pills and it’s all good and we’re all fine. And apparently it’s prevalent both in the Ukraine and rampant in the Russian army.

Jessica DaMassa:

But not in Miami.

Matthew Holt:

Oh, I’m sure there is no COVID of any disease ever in Florida.

Jessica DaMassa:

Except for the one person who’s got it, who has your Airbnb.

Matthew Holt:

Well, there is that. And then we’ll find out … I think they’re going to be a bit surprised when they go to ViVE and they’re going to have to get tested.

Jessica DaMassa:

Yeah, you have to get COVID tested. Don’t forget. So make sure you build that in to your morning. Yeah.

Matthew Holt:

We shall see.

Jessica DaMassa:

All right. Set your timer. Let’s do these deals. We’re cleaning up.

Matthew Holt:

All right. Yeah, so we have the kind of motley pre-conference deal selection.

Jessica DaMassa:

Yeah.

Matthew Holt:

But you’ll see what we got.

Jessica DaMassa:

All right. Ready?

Matthew Holt:

All right, ready? And go.

Jessica DaMassa:

ModMed acquires Klara for $200 million. Matthew Holt, what do we know about this?

Matthew Holt:

Yeah, $200 million is the rumor in HIStalk. So ModMed is kind of a specialty EMR that does a whole bunch of stuff like urology, and they’ve been at Health 2.0 Once or twice. Klara, way back, it’s like a communication system, one of these other ones like TigerConnect or maybe Tinder or whatever. Way back when, HealthTeam gave them some money for a grant for New York City. I want my 10%.

Jessica DaMassa:

Add them to the list.

Matthew Holt:

So Klara had raised about $30 odd million. ModMed raised another $54 as part of this, they’ve raised about $400 million now. $200 million, I suppose, in stock is decent for probably a $2 million valuation for ModMed now.

Jessica DaMassa:

All right. What do we know about Naya? They raised $55 million, brings their total up to $106. This is like a benefit selection tool, Transformation is in this and Iqonic Growth.

Matthew Holt:

Yeah, I mean, who the hell knows? A new company. They raised a lot last year. They’ve now raised $106 million overall. And I guess benefit selection has been a pain in the ass and very difficult for many years for employees, employers. I’m surprised that you could build that big a company in this area. This, by the way, is where Healtheon was going to be in 1996, so things haven’t changed very much.

Jessica DaMassa:

All right. How about this interesting partnership? Sanofi partners up with Dario Health to bring chronic condition DTX to market. $30 million deal, multi-year partnership. Matthew Holt, what do you think?

Matthew Holt:

Well, Dario is pretty small, right? They’re only doing about $15 million a quarter, so a $30 million deal is pretty big news to them. They’re publicly traded, kind of a weird company. They do a bunch of stuff studying with diabetes, other stuff. Sanofi, of course, was originally involved in Onduo with Verily, now not. It’s kind of like two orphans finding each other. I don’t know what’s going on there.

Jessica DaMassa:

All right. What about Ro? They acquired Dadi, which is an in-home sperm testing company.

Matthew Holt:

Spray and pray.

Jessica DaMassa:

Matthew Holt! All right, moving on. Daybreak Health, this is mental health for kids, who are going to need it right now after that comment. They get $10 million in a series A. Mental health for kids has been successful via schools, right?

Matthew Holt:

Yeah. Actually it’s quite interesting. I’ve run into a couple of these who are targeting schools, there’s another one called Neolth, and I saw one at the What If Ventures session, which was raising a couple of million and had raised it. And I’m blanking on the name, although I did talk to the CEO, but basically there’s a whole lot of money.

Jessica DaMassa:

Is that the one named after the animal?

Matthew Holt:

No, that was Little Otters.

Jessica DaMassa:

Little Otters.

Matthew Holt:

So Little Otters and Brightline are networks of child psychiatrists and child psychologists aimed at kids via employers.

Jessica DaMassa:

Okay.

Matthew Holt:

Brightline– I had an appointment with them earlier today. They are very busy. They have a lot of employers lined up for their employees’ kids. There’s a separate big bucket of money that came out of the CARES Act and some of the infrastructure. I don’t know where it came out of. There was a big bucket of federal money.

Jessica DaMassa:

But there was a bucket of money.

Matthew Holt:

A lot of money, lots of money, which is aimed at mental health for kids in schools. In fact, that got a mention in the State of Union as well.

Jessica DaMassa:

Yeah, it did.

Matthew Holt:

And I think that a number of these companies, including … I mentioned Neolth, but also Daybreak and others, are aiming at that bucket of money … There’s a company called Hazel Health which does general healthcare in schools for school nurses, telehealth stuff, which also has got a mental health component. So I think that’s another way people are saying, “Well, there’s all this money in schools. We need to figure it out. Can we go and provide mental health services for kids?” Daybreak Health is somewhere in that thing. Interestingly enough, they have the same name as one of the tools of your friends in Big Health. So somebody will be suing somebody.

Jessica DaMassa:

No, they’re not-

Matthew Holt:

No?

Jessica DaMassa:

… because that’s Daylight.

Matthew Holt:

Sorry. Daylight, Daybreak.

Jessica DaMassa:

Because I’ve messed that up multiple times. No, it’s Daylight. So it’s Daylight and Sleepio for Big Health.

Matthew Holt:

Okay. But they’re not mental … Well, they’re kind of mental health.

Jessica DaMassa:

Yeah, that’s anxiety, but not for kids. People, name your companies different things.

Matthew Holt:

Well-this, Health-that.

Jessica DaMassa:

Doctor, doctor.

Matthew Holt:

Doctor, doctor. Yeah.

Jessica DaMassa:

Oh, Doctor-anything. Oh, we could go on.

Matthew Holt:

Right.

Jessica DaMassa:

Yeah. Anyway. Let’s get out of this.

Matthew Holt:

Okay. Well, we are going to be in Miami the next time anybody sees us. There will be the odd interview.

Jessica DaMassa:

Oh, the odd interview.

Matthew Holt:

The odd party.

Jessica DaMassa:

There will be odd Health Tech Deals episode from somebody’s booth somewhere.

Matthew Holt:

Hey, you want us to come do it in your booth, and you better write a huge check for the privilege.

Jessica DaMassa:

Pay up for it.

Matthew Holt:

We can come.

Jessica DaMassa:

Guest starring.

Matthew Holt:

That’s it.

Jessica DaMassa:

Yeah. Okay. So to send those checks, reach out to us on Twitter. We’ll send you a mailing address. I am over there @jessdamassa and he is @boltyboy. And of course, follow us to follow along with the fun that we’re going to have on the ground in Miami at ViVE. And to make sure that you don’t miss an episode of anything that’s recorded in any booth there or anywhere else, sign up for the email newsletter over there at thehealthcareblog.com and receive the best of the blog delivered directly into your inbox every week.

Matthew Holt:

Or so.

Jessica DaMassa:

Also what?

Matthew Holt:

No, well, it comes every week or so. Because I didn’t do it last week.

Jessica DaMassa:

Oh, or so, not also.

Matthew Holt:

I didn’t do it last week because I was sick. I will do it next week.

Jessica DaMassa:

Do you want to sponsor subtitles? We’re looking for that too.

Matthew Holt:

Also, or so.

Jessica DaMassa:

Or so. It sounded the same.

Matthew Holt:

Or so. Talking about mental health for kids, my kid is in speech therapy because he can’t say his Rs properly.

Jessica DaMassa:

I wonder where he got that.

Matthew Holt:

Perhaps I should join him. All right.

Jessica DaMassa:

All right. That’s it. We’re done.

Matthew Holt:

Bye.

Jessica DaMassa:

Enough of the problems. We’ll see you guys later. Bye.