Startup Shoutouts: June 28, 2019
Every day, innovators across the MATTER community are building new solutions that accelerate innovation, advance care and improve lives. Here’s a look into the most noteworthy headlines from the past few weeks.
Vynca scores $10.3M to honor end-of-life wishes
Vynca, a leading advance care planning solution, received $10.3 million in Series B funding from strategic investors including First Trust Capital Partners, Spectrum Health Ventures and OCA Ventures. Vynca ensures that every patient’s care preferences at the end of life are honored through accessible, electronic end-of-life forms. With this funding, Vynca plans to drive new product development involving education and engagement with their partners, including over 80 hospitals and five state registries.
“Vynca’s state registry partnerships and impressive growth are a testament to how they are setting a new standard for end-of-life care, ensuring that accurate care plans are available in critical moments. We look forward to being part of Vynca’s continued growth and success,” said Rachel Kern of First Trust Capital Partners in an interview with PR Newswire. Read more.
Cynerio snags the blue ribbon for cybersecurity
Cynerio was named the winner of the 2019 Healthcare Analytics Innovation Award by MedTech Breakthrough for their tailor-made cybersecurity solutions. Attracting more than 3,000 global nominations, the award recognizes success in a range of health and medical technology categories. As the leading provider of Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) security, Cynerio goes beyond traditional IoMT systems by utilizing technology that continually assesses risk associated behavior and accurately detects anomalies to ensure data protection.
“We are honored to receive this industry recognition which combined with the recent acceleration in sales validates the market need for IoMT cybersecurity,” said Leon Lerman, Cynerio CEO in their press release. Read more.
Nym raises $6M to help code for the future
Nym, a leading developer of autonomous coding software, raised $6 million in seed round financing led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Nym leverages AI technology to provide real-time medical coding to healthcare providers and revenue cycle management companies. While over 250,000 medical coders manually review patient charts and assign billing codes, Nym’s Clinical Language Understanding technology allows for accurate coding with zero human intervention, saving both time and operational costs.
“The company’s innovative approach to language understanding — combining computational linguistics with medical language and knowledge — provides the missing link for a healthcare system in need of reliable and real-time medical coding and billing,” said Adam Fisher, a partner at Bessemer. Read more.
Enzyme by Design wins grant to level up cancer treatment
Enzyme by Design, a UIC startup founded to improve the safety profile of cancer therapeutics through biochemical research, has secured approximately $1 million in total funding to help develop a less toxic version of chemotherapy. The drug will be used to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a common form of pediatric cancer, and utilizes a safer form of asparaginase to kill cancer cells while decreasing dangerous side effects. With support from UIC, the National Institute of Health and Chicago Biomedical Consortium, Enzyme by Design aims to revolutionize oncology medicine while maximizing quality of life. Read More.
Redox takes a stand for safer data
Redox recently partnered with Bugcrowd to help ensure the security of their customers’ health data through the launch of a public bug bounty program. The software solutions platform will offer monetary rewards to hackers that identify security vulnerabilities in their platform, with up to $10,000 paid per critical flaw found. Emphasizing the need for secure and efficient data exchanges in healthcare, this new partnership will help keep customer data safe while gaining contextual information on potential cybersecurity threats.
“We’re thrilled to be working with Redox, extending the power of their security team and paving the way for other health IT companies to adopt next-generation security testing practices,” said Ashish Gupta, CEO of Bugcrowd. Read more.