FDA Approves Theranica’s Nerivio® for Acute Treatment of Migraine in Adolescents

This next era of technology in healthcare will no longer be focused on maximizing billing in a fee-for-service model at the expense of the patients and providers that use it.
It’s time to build technology that creates measurable clinical value, removes administrative waste, and delights patients and providers alike. It’s time to reset Healthcare’s Human-Technology Relationship, and realign the work of innovation and technology to the patients and providers that need it most.

metaMe Health, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted clearance for Regulora®, the first FDA-authorized treatment of any kind specifically for abdominal pain associated with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in adults.

Treatment of abdominal pain associated with IBS is poised for a fundamental shift in clinical practice. The COVID-19 pandemic has prevented patients from engaging in many of the activities of daily living and has led to increases in pain and psychological distress due to IBS-related symptoms (1). This has created a growing unmet medical need for self-administered behavioral therapy options to treat IBS.

Regulora provides behavioral therapy based on Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy (GDH) through a convenient smartphone app that can be used at home. GDH helps patients with their IBS symptoms by promoting healthier control of digestive tract function and delivering therapy designed to influence pain sensation (2). Until now, GDH has been provided only in-person by licensed therapists.

Company announces TELUS Ventures as investor in LionBird III

TEL AVIV – October 18, 2021 – LionBird, a venture capital firm based in Tel Aviv and Chicago, investing in pre-scale digital health companies, today announced TELUS Ventures as a strategic limited partner in its third fund, LionBird III.

“We’re looking forward to leveraging TELUS Ventures’ strong healthcare assets to accelerate our portfolio companies as they enter key markets in North America,” said Jonathan Friedman, partner at LionBird. “With TELUS Ventures, we will be able to strengthen our value proposition of helping startups with navigating a complex healthcare market and with connecting to the right stakeholders early.”

Founded in 2012 by veteran entrepreneurs and Fortune 100 executives in the software and healthcare industries, LionBird has developed an investment strategy around pre-scale digital health startups that are re-engineering healthcare’s status quo. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic shed a bright light on deficiencies in the healthcare system, and the increased role that digital health, including telemedicine, can play in addressing many of those shortcomings. With investment teams in the U.S. and Israel, as well as extensive experience assisting teams in setting up commercial operations in the U.S. market, LionBird is uniquely positioned to leverage this inflection point in digital health, particularly with its strong presence in Israel’s digital health startup ecosystem.

During the first quarter of this year, Israeli digital health companies raised nearly $700 million – 85 per cent of the total funding amount in the same sector for all of 2020 – according to data from Start-Up Nation Central, a nonprofit that tracks Israel’s tech industry. Nearly 60 per cent of LionBird’s existing portfolio companies started their operations in Israel which, for decades, has been considered globally leading in healthcare technologies – a point not lost on TELUS Ventures. TELUS Ventures hopes to broaden its exposure to Israel’s highly integrated digital health market and uncover future strategic investment opportunities.

“TELUS Ventures is investing at the forefront of digital health technologies to help create a healthier future for everyone,” said Mario Mele, VP Corporate Strategy, TELUS Ventures. “As the leading digital health seed stage fund based out of Israel, LionBird has demonstrated a strong track record of innovation which offers us an opportunity to increase engagement with the local ecosystem and help bring the latest technological advances in healthcare to Canada.”

As the strategic investment arm of Canadian telecommunications and health technology company, TELUS Corporation, TELUS Ventures brings significant value-add to the LionBird III fund. Together, the firms’ complementary venture skill sets, networks, and expertise will reinforce their ability to collectively assist their portfolio founders and teams in laying the best foundation for scale and success.

To learn more about LionBird or to contact the team, visit www.lionbird.com.

About LionBird
LionBird is a venture capital firm investing in pre-scale digital health companies with operations in Tel Aviv and the U.S. Founded in 2012 by veteran entrepreneurs and Fortune 100 executives in the software and healthcare industries, LionBird provides pre-scale capital and assistance to mission-driven teams re-engineering the healthcare status quo. Since its inception, the firm has invested in more than 30 founding teams across the U.S. and Israel. The firm is currently investing out of its third fund, LionBird III, exclusively focused on early-stage digital health.

About TELUS Ventures
As the strategic investment arm of TELUS Corporation (TSX: T, NYSE: TU), TELUS Ventures is one of Canada’s most active corporate venture capital funds. TELUS Ventures invests globally in companies from Seed to Pre-IPO with a focus on innovative technologies such as AgTech, HealthTech, Connected Consumer, IoT, AI, and Security to actively drive new solutions across the TELUS ecosystem. Led by a team of experienced operators, investors and executives, the Ventures team is passionate about creating positive social impact through financial tools and has invested in more than 90 companies since inception.

For more information please visit ventures.telus.com.

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Media Contacts

LionBird Contact:
Sasha Hayman
Investor Relations Director, LionBird
Tel: 847-840-8951
Email: ir@lionbird.com

TELUS Contact:
Jill Yetman
TELUS Public Relations
Tel: 416-992-2639
Email: jill.yetman@telus.com

TytoCare, a telehealth platform and remote care device maker, has added another $50 million to its Series D funding round, bringing the oversubscribed round to a total of $100 million.

The Israeli startup raised the first $50 million in April 2020 in a round led by Insight Partners, which led this extension as well. New investors Tiger Global Management and Qumra Capital joined this time around, as well as investors from previous rounds, including Qualcomm Ventures, Olive Tree Ventures, and Shenzhen Capital Group Company. Read more…

FundGuard, an AI-powered software-as-a-service investment management platform, today announced that it closed a $12 million funding round. The investment will spur product development to support existing partnerships, FundGuard says, in addition to helping to meet demand from alternative funds and insurers.

AI is increasingly being used to manage assets toward the goal of maximizing returns on investments. For example, trading algorithms leverage AI to devise novel signals and execute trades with lower overall transaction costs. AI can also bolster risk modeling and forecasting by generating insights from previously untapped data sources. Read more…

LawGeex, a startup that automates the contract review process, has patented its artificial intelligence technology — a milestone that signals growing comfort with machine learning in law and could accelerate growth for the business.

The AI analyzes documents based on the contract’s context with “the mind of a human lawyer,” according to Noory Bechor, the company’s co-founder and CEO. This contextual approach takes into account surrounding factors like company policies, the document type, and whether the client is the buyer or seller. Read more…

Rhino Health, a startup leveraging federated learning to connect hospitals and AI developers, today emerged from stealth with $5 million. The company says it will use the funds to further develop its platform, which provides access to distributed datasets from a diverse group of patients.