Blog
by Mohamad MakhzoumiOct 25, 2022
The recent explosion of digital health has been catalyzed by several macro factors: the pandemic upended care delivery status quo, investments in healthcare digitization accelerated, and regulatory tailwinds continued to support innovation. In 2021, $29B was invested in the sector across 729 deals.[i] Despite the recent economic downturn, there’s never been a better time to build a digital health company.
As longtime healthcare investors, NEA has had a firsthand view of the rapidly emerging ecosystem of digital health companies. In our effort to support these companies as they tackle massive healthcare challenges, we consistently and frequently hear about the overwhelming set of technology and service provider choices founders have to make when building their businesses. Unfortunately, due to the pace of growth and dizzying number of options, a trusted, independent, and authoritative resource has not existed.
Together, alongside Elion CEO Bobby Guelich and Max Ventures, the NEA team became convinced that an independent company was needed to address the service provider selection gap and subsequently, Elion was founded to fill the void.
Elion is building the first-of-its-kind digital health marketplace, leveraging structured insights to enable better healthcare technology decisions. Through its comprehensive vendor marketplace, stakeholder-driven insights, and in-depth, tactical content, Elion provides the resources healthcare builders need to discover, evaluate and select the solutions to power their businesses.
From the initial meeting, NEA and Max knew that Bobby was aligned on the vision for Elion. Bobby is a longtime digital health veteran who helped build Oscar and Trialspark, two high-growth healthcare companies, and has directly experienced the same pain points felt by many early-stage healthcare builders. With limited time and resources, Bobby and his teams had to make countless decisions that impacted both core and non-core functions of businesses. In hindsight, the common sentiment between Bobby and other digital health builders we spoke to was: Why doesn’t a healthcare vendor marketplace tool exist today?
Elion recently announced its seed financing and launched its initial product marketplace, marking the beginning of the journey to make it easier for builders to create the next generation of great healthcare companies. With its initial product, Elion is building a content-driven marketplace that allows healthcare builders to discover, evaluate and select the technology and service vendors that address their most pressing needs.
Initial product features include:
Ataxonomy that brings structure to the universe of digital health infrastructure vendors
Amarketplace that makes it easy for builders to discover and compare vendors
In-depth content that gives buyers the context and knowledge they need to make better vendor decisions
With market feedback, Elion will be rapidly expanding its universe and launching new product features with the goal of helping builders create better healthcare companies in less time.
Thank you to everyone who has helped us get to this point: Bobby, Matt, Lukas, Aayush, Sha, Varun, Jenny, Josh, Jeff, Brendan, Nikhil, Dhruv, etc. Elion is just getting started. If you’re a digital health builder who wants to fundamentally enable healthcare companies to deliver better care, faster, then join the team.
If you are a vendor or builder who wants to be a part of the Elion platform, check it out here.
Lily Huang, NEA; Bobby Guelich, Elion; Matt Weinberg, Max Ventures[i] https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/digital-health/digital-health-funding-topped-29b-2021-almost-doubling-2020-s-record-breaking-year
The information provided in this blog post is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended to be investment advice, or recommendation, or as an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy an interest in any fund or investment vehicle managed by NEA or any other NEA entity. New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is a registered investment adviser with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). However, nothing in this post should be interpreted to suggest that the SEC has endorsed or approved the contents of this post. NEA has no obligation to update, modify, or amend the contents of this post nor to notify readers in the event that any information, opinion, forecast or estimate changes or subsequently becomes inaccurate or outdated. In addition, certain information contained herein has been obtained from third-party sources and has not been independently verified by NEA. The companies featured in this post are for illustrative purposes only, have been selected in order to provide an example of the types of investments made by NEA that fit the theme of this post and are not representative of all NEA portfolio companies. The company founders or executives or any other individuals featured or quoted in this post are not compensated, directly or indirectly, by NEA but may be founders or executives of portfolio companies NEA has invested in through funds managed by NEA and its affiliates. Any statements made by founders, investors, portfolio companies, or others in the post or on other third-party websites referencing this post are their own, and are not intended to be an endorsement of the investment advisory services offered by NEA.
