NEXT VENTŪRES Year In Review
Looking back on 2021 and outlining opportunities to come in the new year
Every month we write a piece encompassing themes within our whole-person health investment thesis. If you would like to receive it directly in your inbox, subscribe now.
Welcome to the inaugural edition of the NEXT VENTŪRES newsletter! Going forward, we’ll be publishing pieces pertaining to our goal of investing in companies that are pushing the boundaries of human optimization.
We saw a record amount of capital invested into our area of focus over the past 12 months as consumers continue to care deeply about wellness and as healthcare becomes increasingly consumerized.
As such, it should be no surprise that 2021 marked our most impactful year yet. However, before diving into a post-mortem of our investment activity this year, let’s recap our journey since launch for those that are familiarizing themselves with our fund.
Health and wellness are crucial to our society, yet access to the things we need to be healthy (e.g., knowledge, products, quality care) is more unevenly distributed than ever. We're a thesis-driven fund focused on human optimization, meaning we look for companies that are helping consumers live healthier lives.
When we launched NEXT VENTŪRES in 2019, our focus was on innovation in sports technology and athlete performance. In 2021 and beyond, human optimization means something much more holistic to us. Our mission is to invest in founders and companies best positioned to democratize access to solutions that enable the manifestation of the “healthy consumer”. Moreover, we believe that these solutions cover a wide spectrum that includes the optimization of physical, mental, social and financial wellness, serving as the core components that will undergird the conscious, communal shift toward a healthier future.
Now that we’re all up to speed on us, let’s take a look at some of the amazing companies that we partnered with this year:
Terra is solving the problem that siloed health and wellness data creates. Currently, the company's unified API solution offers developers normalized data insights across its user spectrum to efficiently track, monitor and measure fitness and many other forms of activity and sensor based output. Looking ahead, we believe that Terra can also play a huge role in the growth of digital health by turning aggregated biomarker data into real world evidence (RWE) that leads to better clinical care and outcomes. Terra will ultimately help a new generation of companies in our space better serve their consumers by enabling data interoperability and contextual insights.
Humane is creating the best human experience, ever. We can’t wait to share more in the upcoming year. We’re beyond excited to be on an extraordinary journey with the amazing Humane team, bringing the next evolution of human-computer interaction into the world.
OK Capsule operates a white-labeled supplement production platform that enables personalized nutrition provision at any scale. By leveraging OK Capsule’s headless solution, brands gain access to personalized supplement provision while forgoing the manufacturing and supply chain backend costs and risks - allowing customers to capitalize on the emerging consumer expectation for precision health & wellness solutions.
Vital Bio is on a mission to make diagnostics ubiquitous, moving healthcare beyond episodic encounters to a world of proactive and accessible care. From how the company measures biomarkers, to new ways of managing our daily health, Vital is building the next generation of tools to create a healthier humankind.
2022 and Beyond
Going forward, we will continue to spend our time focused on early Seed and Series A opportunities across health, wellness, fitness and sport that contain a through line of any of the four human optimization types mentioned at the outset of this piece.
Here are themes within our investment thesis where we see significant white space for meaningful innovation - and thus opportunities ripe for investment. We’d love to explore partnering with founders building promising solutions around them:
Financial access and inclusion for individuals who are increasingly burdened with high out-of-pocket healthcare costs.
Care provision, care coordination or accessibility boosters for underserved communities/cultures.
Health insurance coverage that is destigmatized and better aligned with the working habits of emerging generations.
Monetization and relationship optimization for fitness and athlete creators.
Sensor fusion experiences within digital health & wellness.
For a more comprehensive view on where we are inquisitive, we’ve put together a market map that canvasses the verticals and sub-verticals that predicate our thesis. Click here to learn more.
Subscribers can expect to receive views and breakdowns of our industry coverage on a steady cadence in 2022. If you are building or investing in our space, we’d love to chat! Please reach out to julian@nextventures.com. We look forward to hearing from you in the new year!
In great health,
Mel, Lance, and Jordan