TELUS Ventures announces new equity investments in Canadian Precision Medicine and Diagnostics companies
Investments demonstrate TELUS’ commitment to supporting innovative technologies that enable the delivery of the right care to the right patient at the right time
Vancouver – TELUS Ventures, one of Canada’s most active Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) funds, announced today that it has completed investments in three of Canada’s leading precision medicine and diagnostics-focused startups: Acorn Biolabs, GenXys Health Systems and Vital Biosciences. These companies join TELUS Ventures’ more than 30 other active investment companies and build on the more than 70 transactions made since 2001 to deliver on a commitment to help develop exciting, new health technologies with the potential to improve the health outcomes of patients across Canada and worldwide through the delivery of customized and timely patient care.
“Customers across our healthcare provider, pharmacy, insurance, employer and executive health channels are increasingly united in their desire to adopt next generation precision medicine and diagnostic tools in order to improve the patient journey, reduce costs and deliver better patient outcomes,” said Rich Osborn, managing partner, TELUS Ventures. “Our investments in these startups and their innovative management teams keep us close to budding new technologies and will allow us to be more responsive to our customers’ needs as these technologies become mainstream.”
Toronto-based Acorn Biolabs has developed an at-home collection kit that allows patients to collect and preserve live hair follicle cells for future use, providing them with the opportunity for full genome banking and the potential to access medical insights and therapies leveraging their own cells. Younger cells have higher success rates in many emerging medical therapies and therefore by storing cells today, Acorn’s services allow customers to maximize their chances to take advantage yet to be discovered, potentially lifesaving medical advancements. The company recently closed a $3.3M seed financing with a syndicate including TELUS Ventures, Real Ventures and Epic Capital Management.
Vancouver-based GenXys offers precision prescribing software and pharmacogenetics testing to personalize drug selection to increase treatment effectiveness. GenXys’ software integrates into the healthcare clinician’s workflow allowing for the seamless delivery of genome-optimized prescriptions preventing adverse drug reactions and ultimately helping to improve patient outcomes. TELUS participated in GenXys’ $1.8M seed financing alongside leading healthcare-focused angel investors and is partnering with GenXys in the Digital Technology Supercluster to improve the integration of precision prescribing into the clinician’s workflow.
Vital Biosciences remains in stealth mode, quietly operating with a focus on the business, building products that combine cutting-edge science, advanced engineering and intuitive design in ways that make monitoring health and managing disease accessible to all. The company is well supported by TELUS and a number of leading early stage North American and international venture funds and angels.
The market for precision medicine and diagnostics is poised for significant growth as patient-centered, value-based care gains traction in Canada and the acceleration of technological innovation helps to drive down costs. These three early stage companies are positioned to become leaders in their specific areas of focus each tackling a unique problem within this growing market, and backed by both strong management teams and quality investors.
These investments demonstrate TELUS Ventures’ continued leadership within the Canadian health IT ecosystem and follows other recent health investments including: Akira, League, MindBeacon and MedStack Inc.
About TELUS Ventures
As the strategic investment arm of TELUS Corporation (TSX: T, NYSE: TU), TELUS Ventures was founded in 2001 and is one of Canada’s most active corporate venture capital funds. TELUS Ventures has invested in over 70 companies since inception with a focus on innovative technologies such as Health Tech, IoT, AI and Security. TELUS Ventures is an active investment partner and supports its portfolio companies through mentoring; exposure to TELUS’ extensive network of business and co-investment partners; access to TELUS’ technologies and broadband networks; and by actively driving new solutions across the TELUS ecosystem.
For more information please visit: ventures.telus.com.
For media inquiries please contact:
Jill Yetman
TELUS PR Team
416-992-2639