Roundup: The Return of Deals, the Rise of Wellness, and AI’s Coming Regulation

Deals, deals, and more deals. After a long, quiet stretch on the fundraising front, I’m seeing a lot more companies getting funded, and even pre-empted. AI continues to be extremely hot and investors are moving to lead rounds earlier and earlier just to get in at valuations they can afford. With all this activity, very few people are stopping to discuss important questions, such as the steps that we need to take from a regulatory perspective to roll out AI in healthcare or the payment model. I plan to spend a good amount of time in the coming weeks writing about and thinking about this very topic, particularly related to the topic of AI, and I welcome your feedback. Candidly, one of my big fears is that the first wave of AI companies does very little to strip out unnecessary healthcare costs.

In other news, I’m fascinated to see growing adoption of various health and wellness interventions that would have seemed fringe even a year ago, including testosterone supplementation and micro-dosing GLP-1s. I do wonder we’re moving into a world with two distinct health systems. One is cash pay, and the other is connected to insurance (and includes insurance, billing complexity, and so forth). There’s still a major disconnect between these two worlds, and I suspect we’ll see that bubble up in the next few months as more primary care doctors find out their patients are taking medications via direct-to-consumer health apps and websites. 

The Trump Administration is also continuing to push unproven theories, such as linking Tylenol use amongst pregnant women to autism (there is no evidence of that). I’ve been saying this for a long time, and it is more needed than ever. The scientific and medical has got to step up and communicate in ways that are accessible to the public, or we will have a very hard time gaining ground in the battle against misinformation. And yes, that means TikTok and Instagram.

Speaking of communication and storytelling, today is the day that my book is finally hitting the proverbial shelves! I first wrote the proposal for this book nearly five years ago, so it’s been a wild experience today to get texts from friends who say their book has arrived. If yours arrives today, I’d so appreciate hearing what you think!

You can grab a copy of the book here.

Lastly, another big trend I’m seeing start to take off is the rise of partnerships. Digital health companies have finally stopped considering themselves islands, and are instead teaming up with each other to share distribution. As an Oura ring user, I was intrigued to see the company team up with both Maven and Evernow to offer women access to medical visits. Oura could in theory build out virtual visits, but it makes far more sense to partner — at least in the near-term. Just with this one use-case with wearables, I see so many opportunities for the device to trigger an opportunity for a deeper medical intervention. Between the Oura ring, the Apple Watch and the Whoop, there’s opportunities to monitor sleep, stress levels, blood pressure, and more. Think of the possibilities here for prevention. After years of questioning whether wearables are worth the investment, I’m now starting to see them move from “nice to have” to “must have.”

So let’s walk through the news of the week, plus a smattering of health-tech deals that got done in H2!

With Annalisa Merelli

The news: Health accreditation body URAC is rolling out the US’s first accreditation program for developers and users of AI, Fierce Healthcare reports. The program is hoping that by offering accreditation to businesses and health care services using AI it will be able to promote trust in the technology. 

What URAC said: “We think that this is a great opportunity to give people that seal of approval, that gold star, that someone independent has gone in behind the scenes and audited to make sure that this is trustworthy,” Shawn Griffin, M.D., CEO and president of URAC.

Why it matters: In an industry where everything can feel “pay to play,” there’s a dearth of organizers out there that will assess companies on their merits alone. Griffin made clear that companies cannot buy accreditation regardless of how much venture capital they raise. What will be intriguing to watch is how organizations like URAC determine true value – whether it’s through clinical outcomes, cost savings, or other forms of value for the customer. 

The news: The online provider is going to offer treatment for low testosterone for men, venturing into a clinically complicated field. The company will initially offer oral testosterone medication Kyzatrex, and plans to introduce injectables in 2026. 

What Hims & Hers said: Andrew Dudum, CEO of Hims & Hers, acknowledged the category is marred with stigma. Still, he’s optimistic that it won’t just be professional athletes interested in gaining muscle, but also those looking for a boost in energy and mood. 

Why it matters: Hims & Hers is going to be aggressively moving into as many categories as possible, and that means the competition is going to be hot and heavy in this space. It’s also an opportunity to bring in more female customers because of the surging demand for testosterone. Doctors warn though that medication should be carefully administered because there are very real potential risks. 

The news: The nutrition and wellness platform Noom announced a free entry tier to its app, and welcomed actor Rebel Wilson as its Chief Wellness Ambassador. The free tier features access to microdoses of GLP-1 and so-called “microhabits.”

What Rebel Wilson said: “I’m a big fan of Noom’s philosophy that small steps can lead to big change,” said the actor, who underwent dramatic weight loss in recent years.  

Why it matters: If you were looking for evidence that GLP-1 drugs have solidly ventured from health to lifestyle domain, microdosing may be it. Increasingly, we are seeing companies in this space move from advertising the medicines to people who are obese and have chronic conditions like diabetes to those who are looking to lose a much smaller amount of weight and generally optimize their health. 

The news: AI platform Eleos is launching a new product that allows for automatic note-taking during group therapy sessions. Though AI-enabled note-taking is the standard in many one-on-one settings, group sessions have so far proven challenging to capture accurately. 

What the company said: “It was the No. 1 request, basically. [In a group setting], the administrative burden is the highest,” Alon Joffe, co-founder and CEO, told Fierce Healthcare. 

Why it matters: The devil is in the details. We are fascinated by the potential for group-based reimbursement, particularly because it’s more attractive than one-on-one sessions when it comes to the unit economics. But we’ve consistently heard that it’s much more challenging in practice to convene a group than it may seem in theory. 

In STAT’s Health Tech newsletter, Mario Aguilar breaks down how venture capital giant General Catalyst benefits WellSpan, which will work with the investor’s HATCo to develop new health tech products. 

We’re watching the unfolding situation - including the lawsuits - between Open Evidence and Doximity. While the lawsuits are an interesting read, what this dispute truly comes down to is which company has the better product and better integration into the workflow. Both are looking to create a ChatGPT for doctors, which also includes a third competitor UpToDate. The company that wins will be thinking beyond the EMR integration to AI native products so that intelligence is seeded into everything that providers do. Clinical decision support should not be a separate app. Doctors, if you’re using both/either product, we’d love to know what you think! 

$20 million for Inbox Health: The AI patient billing company secured the new funding in growth equity, reaching a total funding of $55 million. The round was led by Ten Coves Capital. 

Conceivable Life Sciences secures $50 million: The company closed its first Series A, led by Advance Venture Partners, for a total funding of $70 million. The company plans to make the first AI-powered IVF lab commercially available in 2026. 

Trially raises $4.7 million: The clinical trial recruitment platform closed a seed round and launched Margo, an AI product specifically targeting recruitment bottlenecks.  

Birches Health secures $20 million: The digital behavioral company and provider of gambling addiction treatment announced the total funding from two rounds, a seed round led by General Catalyst in 2023 and a Series A led by AlleyCorp in 2025. 

Amazon partners with Fay: The e-commerce giant brought Fay on as its first nutrition care provider in its Health Benefits Connector, which connects enrolled customers with online health providers.

Diana Health raises $55 million: The Series C round led by HealthQuest Capital brought the women’s health company’s total capital to $101 million. Diana Health will use the funds to expand its physical footprint and expand its clinical programming and digital platform. 

Innovacer acquires Story Health: The AI and health care technology company will add the specialty care offered by the Cupertino startup to its offering. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. 

Assured raises $6 million: The startup, which uses AI to speed up the provider credentialing process, closed a seed round led by  First Round Capital. 

Penguin AI raises $29.7 million: The prior authorization startup launched with a venture round led by Greycroft.

MoldCo raises $8 million: The company wants to standardize mold detox as a part of preventative care. The seed funding round was led by Cantos and Collaborative Fund, and it brings the company’s total capital to $11 million. 

$67 million for Imagine Pediatrics: The company closed a Series B to expand its virtual and in-home pediatric care offering for children with special needs.  

Let's acknowledge the elephant in the room. After a decade plus of investing in healthcare, there's not a lot of macro evidence that the population is any healthier. What's your take on that disconnect?

HT: You’re right—the U.S. hasn’t gotten healthier. AND it’s only gotten more expensive. It’s maddening. But we’re just at the first innings of digital health, and there are signs that we’re headed in the right direction. Hospitals are adopting AI faster than anything we’ve seen. Virtual care has become the norm. 

We’ve also sparked a kind of consumer awakening that I’ve talked about before. People are more aware of costs than ever. We’ve even had lawsuits where employees are suing their employers under ERISA for breach of fiduciary duty. There are early signs of pressure that can reshape the system. The investments of the last decade laid the groundwork, and the next decade will be about whether we can connect those micro-level wins to real, population-level outcomes.

Can you share one of the biggest learnings you had from your book, Massively Better Healthcare? Ideally something that surprised you. 

HT: One of the biggest learnings for me was how deeply entrenched regulatory capture is in U.S. healthcare. I went in thinking regulation was mostly about patient safety and system stability. What surprised me was how often incumbents shape the rules in ways that protect their margins more than those of patients, ultimately stifling innovation. You see it in drug pricing, certificate-of-need laws, scope-of-practice battles—the list goes on. 

You've openly talked about your track record as an angel investor in healthcare. What advice do you have for others that are interested in building their own portfolio?

HT: Don’t do it for the money. Angel investing is an illiquid asset—you can’t just sell it like a house or a stock. It can take 10+ years to see a return, if you see one at all, because most startups fail (or you get diluted by later investors). Your financial planner will not be thrilled!

If what you want is a front-row seat to innovation and a chance to help shape the future of healthcare, there are so many ways to do that beyond angel investing. 

Do you have a burning idea that you wish someone would go and build in healthcare? If so, can you share it?

HT: Yes! On a personal level, I suffer from allergies and asthma. Right now, I take a cocktail of medications, but I’d love an AI-driven tool that could actually predict my triggers—mostly environmental—and guide me on when to take which meds. It could also be integrated with an at-home spirometry test, so instead of checking lung function once a year with my pulmonologist, I could track it continuously. For me, daily use of a maintenance inhaler comes with side effects I don’t like, but the alternative (having an asthma attack) is far worse. A system that personalized daily dosing and timing based on real-world data would be game-changing for me!

Halle Tecco, MBA, MPH is a healthcare entrepreneur, investor, and board member. She serves on the boards of Collective Health and Cofertility. She is a Course Director at Harvard Medical School and an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School. Halle founded seed fund Rock Health and Natalist (acquired by Everly Health). She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an MPH from Johns Hopkins University. Her forthcoming book, Massively Better Healthcare, published by Columbia University Press, is out in January 2026.