Town Hall Ventures to Focus on Building Companies Driving Higher Quality and More Affordable Care for Most Vulnerable Americans
New Partnership Is Led by Andy Slavitt, Trevor Price and David Whelan
May 8, 2018 -- (Minneapolis, MN, and New York, NY) – Today, three health care industry leaders announced the formation of Town Hall Ventures, a venture capital firm that will seek to invest in health care technology and service companies transforming care delivery to America’s most vulnerable populations. The firm is being built on a foundation of broad and deep expertise in building companies to improve care in Medicare, Medicaid, risk-based care, complex conditions and in addressing social determinants of health. These areas of focus touch almost 120 million Americans and approximately $1.2 trillion in annual health care spending.
Town Hall Ventures will be led by Andy Slavitt, the former Administrator of the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services (“CMS”) and Group Executive Vice President of Optum; Trevor Price, Founder of Oxeon Holdings, a retained executive search and investment firm; and David Whelan, Managing General Partner of predecessor firm Oxeon Ventures and formerly General Partner & CFO of investment firm Accretive LLC.
The Town Hall Ventures team brings a commitment to public service, extensive business experience and a strong track record in founding, investing in, and leading highly successful companies that have made a national imprint on our health care systems. Additionally, Town Hall Ventures will benefit from a unique network of mentors, experts and community leaders to support Town Hall’s portfolio company entrepreneurs as they endeavor to transform care in communities across the country.
The firm has been formed around a rare combination of entrepreneurial, executive, policy, regulatory, financial and investment expertise. As a former administrator of CMS, Mr. Slavitt brings a unique lens to the policies and regulations impacting Medicare and Medicaid populations. He also has over a decade of first-hand experience leading the growth of Optum from its inception into a large multi-billion dollar enterprise. Mr. Price, who is remaining in his role as CEO of Oxeon Partners, has created the leadership teams for many of the defining companies innovating in Medicare and Medicaid, including Evolent Health (NYSE: EVH), Landmark Health, Oak Street Health, Cityblock Health, Aspire Health, VillageMD and Bright Health, as well as having led Oxeon investments in each of these companies. Mr. Whelan brings a significant reputation as a health care investor who has developed, launched and invested in a number of companies at Oxeon Ventures and previously as General Partner and CFO of Accretive LLC, an approx. $500M AUM private equity firm, as well as Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group as a founder of the airline Virgin America. In addition to the three partners, the founding team includes: David Mishkin, Town Hall Ventures Investment Director with health care investment experience; Natalie Davis, Town Hall Ventures Director, and formerly Senior Advisor to CMS Administrator Slavitt; and Lauren Robb, Town Hall Ventures Investment Senior Associate, who was previously a Director at Optum- a health services, technology, and innovation company.
“As a nation we have significant health care infrastructure serving healthy populations while lower-income communities go underserved, leading to vastly poorer health outcomes,” said Slavitt. “We are at the beginning of a wave of innovation serving Medicare and Medicaid populations. Town Hall is being formed to help lead this massive and necessary shift. The answers are not always traditional; they involve investments in underlying systemic issues as well as innovative approaches that improve people’s health and well-being.”
Town Hall Ventures announced its first investments, including:
Cityblock Health, Inc., built in partnership with Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs to provide primary care, behavioral health, and human services to address unmet health and social needs in urban populations;
Somatus, Inc., an innovative company revolutionizing treatment and new models of care for chronic kidney patients;
Welbe Health, LLC a provider of integrated medical and social services to frail seniors who qualify for PACE.
Aetion, Inc., a provider of real-world analytics and evidence to help biopharma companies and payers better understand how drugs work in the real-world to enable value based care.
“Without Town Hall and the resources and expertise they bring to bear, our goal of transforming care for urban and low-income populations would be moving far slower. In a short time, they have helped us roll out services in our first community, hire a first-class leadership team, and prepare ourselves for the daunting set of challenges that often substantially slow market entry in new health care organizations. As a first-time entrepreneur, Town Hall surrounded me with a group of experienced leaders and operators across regulatory, management, fundraising, and technology unparalleled in health care,” said Iyah Romm, the CEO of Cityblock Health.
“Identifying talented entrepreneurs and helping them through the painstaking process of building a great company is something we are passionate about,” said Trevor Price. “We believe we will see more entrepreneurs whose missions are to serve the tens of millions of people whose lives can be improved by innovations that allow them to receive the absolute best quality of care, whether being treated at home and/or in other comfortable and low-cost settings.”
“Our objective is to be a catalyst and investing partner to spur substantial investment and entrepreneurial commitment to the rapidly emerging opportunity to support real health care solutions for Americans all over the country,” said David Whelan. “With Andy’s, Trevor’s and my personal involvement, we look forward to sparking a series of Town Hall companies over the next few years and supporting them to change health care for the better.”
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About Town Hall Ventures
Town Hall Ventures is a venture firm headquartered in New York and Minneapolis that invests in health care companies primarily serving vulnerable populations covered by Medicare and Medicaid. With deep experience building businesses, serving in major public and private sector roles, building premier executive teams, and investing across technology and health care, Town Hall partners with entrepreneurs to build transformational businesses from the idea stage to the growth stage.
About Andy Slavitt
Andy is founding and general partner of Town Hall Ventures. Andy brings decades of private and public sector leadership in health care, business and technology. Over his career, Andy has led many of the most significant and successful initiatives in health care impacting millions of Americans and the shape of the health care system. Andy previously served as the Acting Administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) under President Obama. He spent a decade at Optum, an organization he helped lead from before its formal inception to the time where it exceeded $35 billion in revenue. In the 1990s, Andy was the founder and CEO of HealthAllies, a digital health company that served the un- and under-insured.
Andy is currently Board Chair of United States of Care, a national non-profit health advocacy organization he founded. Andy leads a number of national health care initiatives, including one on the future of health care, which he co-chairs at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Today he is a highly recognizable voice in health care, with a regular column in the USA Today and regular appearances on CNN, MSNBC and Fox. He is listed in the Politico 50 and was recognized by Modern Healthcare as one of the 10 most influential people in health care.
Andy graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
About Trevor Price
Trevor Price is founding and general partner of Town Hall Ventures. Trevor is also the Founder & CEO of Oxeon Partners, a retained executive search and investment firm in the health care technology and services industry. Trevor will continue in this role along with being a General Partner at Town Hall Ventures. During his time leading Oxeon, Trevor’s role as a trusted human capital partner to the CEOs and Venture/Private Equity investors behind many of the high growth innovative health care companies has been critical to their success and is of unique value to Town Hall Ventures. Trevor also led Oxeon’s investments in these companies and will continue to do this but now within the Town Hall Ventures mandate. He was previously a Partner and Senior Vice President at Daversa Health and has been an entrepreneur, starting and growing a variety of technology and service companies.
Trevor is an Adjunct Professor of Health Care Entrepreneurship at the Dartmouth College Tuck School of Business. Outside of his “day job”, he co-hosts A Healthy Dose, a podcast where he discusses the latest hot-topic issues with leaders across the health care industry. Trevor sits on the Board of Directors of Docent Health, Risalto Health and Prep For Prep, an organization supporting high-potential youths of color in New York City.
Trevor graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and currently lives in New York City.
About David Whelan
David Whelan is founding and general partner of Town Hall Ventures. David is Managing General Partner at Oxeon Ventures, a predecessor firm to Town Hall, where he has overseen the company's previous investment portfolio and leads the firm’s venture start-up studio. Under David’s oversight, the ventures studio designs, provides initial capital for, incubates, and builds de novo or purpose-built-from-scratch health care companies. Before Oxeon, David served as CFO and General Partner of Accretive LLC, a private investment firm specializing in building disruptive startup companies. David was also Vice President of Corporate Development with the Virgin Group, where he led development of Virgin America.
Previously, David was an investment banker with Goldman Sachs in London and Sydney. He serves on the board of Friends of Hudson River Park Trust, an independent nonprofit dedicated to preserving and enhancing the Hudson River Park.
David holds a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Commerce from Bond University in Queensland, Australia. He currently lives in New York City.