SwissHealth Ventures: digital, innovative, personal.
SwissHealth Ventures invests in start-ups whose ideas set the course for a high quality, cost-effective healthcare system.
Our focus
Who we are
SwissHealth Ventures AG is a member of the CSS Group, Switzerland's leading health insurer. We are the ideal healthcare partner for ambitious start-ups in the field of digital health.
Our industry-specific expertise is complemented by the support of experienced venture capital partner Redstone, enabling agile and sustainable growth.
What we offer
Our investment focus
We invest in start-ups that advance healthcare with new digital technologies and strive for synergies with the CSS Group. With targeted investments, we want to support people in staying healthy, getting healthy, or living with an illness. In addition, we focus on digital solutions that directly increase efficiency for the core business of health insurers.
How we operate
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Volume
SwissHealth Ventures makes its investments in accordance with the customary venture capital standards. The amount invested in each start-up should generally be in the range of 0.5 to 4 million Swiss francs. That means our investment in any start-up is usually less than 20%.
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Phase
We are looking for start-ups in the growth phase. In other words, we invest in series A and series B rounds. Ideally, the company was founded at least two to three years ago and has already achieved initial success. These include market launches, paying customers and significant growth.
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Region
We focus on European start-ups whose products and services are relevant to the Swiss healthcare market or aim to become so.
We are shaping the digital health of tomorrow in the following areas:
More efficient thanks to new technologies
Being insured
- Digital health insurance
- Communication and marketing
- Patient rep. outcomes
- Corporate infrastructure
- Digitalisation and efficiency gains in health insurance
Lifestyle and wellness innovations
Staying healthy
- Fitness
- Nutrition
- Self-tracking
- Mental health
- Independent living in old age
Digitally assisted recovery
Getting healthy
- Telemedicine
- Online appointment-booking
- Early detection
- Communication with care providers
Support for chronic illnesses
Living with illness
- Chronicle care
- Patient monitoring
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Care coordination
- Advanced diagnosis
- Specific therapy
Get Funded
Does your start-up fit our investment criteria and are there potential synergies with the CSS Group? Then we look forward to hearing from you.
Portfolio
Humanoo
Humanoo has developed a platform for digital health management that helps make people and organisations healthier. The digital health company offers numerous on-demand programmes for fitness, physio, yoga, mindfulness, sleep and nutrition. SwissHealth Ventures invested in this start-up in 2021 as lead investor in the series B round (which raised a total of USD 10 million in funding from all investors). The capital raised gives Humanoo the resources required to further develop its core product and keep growing.
Humanoo also forms the basis for the CSS active365 (in German) rewards app. Users get access to Humanoo programmes and are rewarded with up to CHF 600 a year for leading a healthy lifestyle.
Flow Neuroscience
The Flow Neuroscience start-up offers a digital and medication-free therapy for treating clinical depression. The combination therapy consists of a brain stimulation headset coupled with a behavioral therapy app. This enables patients to treat depression under guidance at home or in the company of a specialist. SwissHealth Ventures invested in this start-up in 2021 as co-lead investor in the series A round, along with Khosla Ventures and Zühlke Ventures. The additional capital raised will enable Flow Neuroscience to tailor the existing solution more specifically to the individual patient, expand on its offering designed for use in interventions supervised by a professional, and access new markets.
The Flow Neuroscience solution aims to personalise the treatment of people with mental health problems. SwissHealth Ventures is convinced that this innovative form of therapy will close a gap in the healthcare market.
OnlineDoctor
With OnlineDoctor, skin problems can be assessed quickly, regardless of location and at low cost by dermatologists licensed in Switzerland. Via a web-based platform, patients receive an initial specialist assessment including a recommendation for action within 48 hours. SwissHealth Ventures participated in 2020 as lead investor in this Swiss telemedicine start-up as part of the A-round (investment volume of all investors total around 5.5 million Swiss francs).
CSS has already made this service a fixed part of its offering, where it is known as the «online skin check». The uncomplicated skin check by Swiss dermatologists contributes to digital integrated care.
Pregnolia
Pregnolia has developed a device that supports the diagnosis of premature birth. It enables gynaecologists to measure cervical stiffness more precisely and thus make a better assessment of the risk of premature birth. SwissHealth Ventures invested in this ETH spin-off in 2020 in the series A round (which raised a total of 4.2 million Swiss francs in funding from all investors).
SwissHealth Ventures believes in the success of the Pregnolia measurement system and its ability to provide great reassurance to professionals and pregnant women. In addition, we believe that this method will reduce healthcare costs in the long term.
Investments for the benefit of insured persons
CSS is committed to high quality, cost-efficient healthcare for the future. As a healthcare partner, it therefore invests in innovative start-ups. These are intended to make tomorrow's medical care accessible to insured persons through new digital offerings. The funds made available for this purpose, amounting to 50 million Swiss francs, come from surpluses from the supplementary insurance business.