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.”