Advancing healthcare solutions with Spring Activator
Fund Updates · Feb 14, 2022
To kick off 2022, the TELUS Pollinator Fund is collaborating with Spring Activator to launch the Health Impact Investor Challenge which focuses on investing in inclusive healthcare innovation and accelerating early-stage healthcare solutions. The challenge aims to bring together investors and entrepreneurs through learning sessions and pitch opportunities, with one start-up taking home around $100,000 for their business from the investor cohort. In advance of the challenge kick off in April 2022 the team came together for a variety of panels to discuss purpose-driven work in healthcare.
Health Impact Investor Challenge information session (January 17, 2022)
This session gave entrepreneurs an opportunity to learn about the process of raising capital for their health-centric business and receive an overview of what the challenge entails. Joined by Chenny Xia, Co-founder and CEO of Gotcare, and Cassandra Hui, Founder of Heal Mary, Spring and the Pollinator Fund discussed the rise from seed to series A and how other entrepreneurs can set out their plans for future growth. Relive the event here.
Impact Investor Summit (January 25, 2022)
Impact Investor Summit (January 25, 2022)
The Pollinator Fund’s Managing Director, Blair Miller, joined Tahir Janmohamed, Founder and CEO of ManagingLife, and Ashanthi Mathai, Founder and CEO of Pocket Naloxone for the Impact Investor Summit. This session was to discuss the ways these innovative health organizations are working to address some of the biggest health challenges of today’s society and providing opportunities to reach vulnerable populations through their solutions, creating better health experiences, and enabling better health outcomes for Canadians and beyond.
The event also featured an investor panel to highlight conversation in the investment space across North America with Genevieve LeMarchal, Managing Director and Head of Healthcare Ventures at Expert Dojo in California, Donna Parr, Managing Partner at Cross Border Impact Ventures in Toronto, and Julien Pham, Founder and Managing Partner at Third Culture Capital out of Boston. Dive into the world of impact investing with the recording here.
Measuring and Evaluating Impact in Healthcare (February 16, 2022)
Our Senior Investment Analysts, Tobi Mueller-Glodde and Nabeela Merchant, joined Spring Activator for a workshop to uncover more about creating positive impacts for society through health initiatives and considering measurement outcomes in all of the diverse sub-sectors of health including digital health, mental health, and medical devices. The Top 20 companies selected to take place in the Health Impact Investor Challenge, and compete for the grand prize $100,000 investment were announced, along with the opportunity for participants to engage in breakout sessions with Lawrence Buchan, Co-founder & CEO at Arbutus Medical, Althea Wishloff, Co-founder and Head of Growth at Koble, and Nicola Brown, Founder & CEO of KOKORO. Revisit the learnings from the general session of measuring impact in healthcare.
Upcoming opportunities
It’s not too late to jump into the conversation:
The Investor Cohort is still open for applications, learn more about applying here
*Note: All recordings are in English
