Emerson Collective President Laurene Powell Jobs speaks during a panel discussion on the second day of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Summit in New York City on September 24, 2024.
Alex Kent Getty Images
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After a weak September, ultra-wealthy investment firms strengthened their trading last month. Family offices made 56 direct investments in companies in October, an increase of about 30% from the previous month, according to data provided exclusively to CNBC by private wealth intelligence platform Fintrx.
Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective was the most prolific investor this month, backing three healthcare startups, according to Fintrx data. Her investment and philanthropic firm seeks to address other complex challenges such as health equity and the energy transition.
Last month, Emerson Collective, along with information technology billionaire Azim Premji’s family office of the same name, participated in a $555 million Series G of Devoted Health, a health care provider and insurer of Medicare Advantage plans. Divorced Health, which counts Emerson Collective as an investor starting in 2021, announced it will use the funding to expand into five additional states, for a total of 34 states.
Powell Jobs’ company also participated in two financings for healthcare data startups BioStack and Collective X Health. BioStack, which has raised $9.5 million in seed funding, analyzes patient records from various institutions to create training datasets for artificial intelligence healthcare models. Collective X Health, which just secured a $3.2 million pre-seed round, aims to close the gender data gap by compiling and licensing peer-reviewed, women-specific data and research.
Emerson Collective enjoys a strong relationship with the family office as it continues to invest in healthcare innovations from telemedicine to drug discovery. In the Family Office Survey released by Citi Wealth in September, healthcare ranked as the second most popular sector for direct investment at 32%, behind AI at 51%.
Erin Harkless Moore manages Melinda French Gates’ investment in Pivotal Ventures.
Provided by Pivotal Ventures
Melinda French Gates’ Pivotal Ventures has participated in an $82 million Series C in Abby Care, an AI-enabled startup that trains and certifies families as paid caregivers under Medicaid and Medicare programs.
Erin Harkless Moore, who manages investments at Pivotal Ventures, told CNBC that the company is looking for founders with first-hand experience with the complexities of healthcare. Javi Nguyen, CEO and founder of Abby Care, began using the Medicaid system at age 9 as a caregiver for her sisters and eventually her grandparents.
“We are looking for teams that deeply understand the problem and are building a model that aligns with the realities of the health care system as it currently exists, and Abbey Care is a great example of that,” Moore said. “Their deep understanding of the market allowed us to identify unresolved issues and understand how to overcome the regulatory challenges in this area.”
For family offices looking to invest in health care, Moore said this overlooked market presents an opportunity to help companies address long-unmet needs.
“Women’s health is an area that has historically been underfunded and under-researched. There is little data, little funding, and there are huge gaps that need to be filled,” she says. “It can make investing more difficult, but it can also show you where the real opportunities are.”
