New Partnership Models Connect Healthcare Providers and Entrepreneurs

Rick Klein

In June, Aurora Health Care in Wisconsin announced its investment in StartUp Health, a global entrepreneurship development company.

“Aurora Health Care is taking a lead investor role in StartUp Health to help expedite the review and adoption of innovations designed to transform the delivery of care,” says Rick Klein, Executive Vice President of Aurora’s Enterprise Business Group.

StartUp Health’s portfolio includes 106 early-stage companies in 11 countries. The health innovation company’s goal is to grow the portfolio to 1,000 companies in the next decade. StartUp Health’s entrepreneurs, or “healthcare transformers,” are focused on digital health and wellness.

Investment in health innovation has heated up in recent years, but historically there has been a persistent gap between entrepreneurs and health systems. With new collaborations like the Aurora Health Care and StartUp Health relationship emerging, the gap is beginning to close.

Unity Stoakes

“For years, as an entrepreneur, you couldn’t even get a meeting at a hospital,” says Unity Stoakes, President and Co-Founder of StartUp Health. “What we thought would be really helpful to the ecosystem is to streamline the commercialization process and create a system and a process that connects the dots between entrepreneurs and health systems.”

Read our new article to learn more about the partnership between Aurora and StartUp Health—and get a list of healthcare organization venture funds: Aurora Health Takes a Lead Investor Role in Digital Health Accelerator StartUp Health and Joins AVIA Innovator Network, Signaling Commitment to Innovation That Improves Patient Care

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Jane Weber Brubaker
Editor