Rev1 Spurs Startup Growth by Closing Capital Gap, Announces First Investment from Pre-Seed Fund
Today, Rev1 Ventures, the startup studio that combines capital and strategic services to help startups scale and corporates innovate, is announcing its first investment from the Rev1 Future Value Fund I (FVF), the company’s $10MM pre-seed fund and the largest pre-seed stage fund in Columbus history. The funding for Redi.Health, provider of health management technology that improves total patient health, signals an important step in Rev1’s mission to support the growth of the Central Ohio startup ecosystem.
2020 was a record-setting year for venture capital, including $632MM in 53 transactions for companies in the Columbus region; however, nearly three-quarters of that funding went to just 13 later-stage deals. Launched six months ago with the support of The Ohio State University and Ohio Third Frontier, FVF is focused on closing the capital gap and supporting earlier stage startups that need financing to accelerate technologies and build great companies.
“While more venture capital is flowing to companies in the U.S. and in Central Ohio than ever before, the lack of support for pre-seed stage startups has never been more apparent,” said Tom Walker, CEO of Rev1 Ventures.
“That disparity hinders entrepreneurs from building businesses that are scalable, which ultimately stifles our innovation pipeline and hinders our region’s economic development. Rev1 continues to be focused on supporting entrepreneurs at the earliest stages through capital and strategic services, and we are proud to have brought together leaders in our community who want to fuel early-stage growth and fill the gap that we all know is growing. Redi.Health has an impressive team, with a proven track record of success in digital health, and we are thrilled to help them broaden availability of their groundbreaking platform.”
Redi.Health combines health management and partnered pharmaceutical manufacturer support into one tool to deliver a truly patient-centric platform that helps polychronic patients (those with three or more chronic diseases) improve their adherence as well as their quality of life.
“This news marks an important moment for Redi.Health and for all early-stage startups in Central Ohio, as it signals the commitment from leaders in our own backyard,” said Luke Buchanan, co-founder and CEO of Redi.Health. “Having experienced the wealth of support and services available in Columbus during my time at CoverMyMeds, I know we’re fortunate to build our business in this region because we’re able to scale here.”
Redi.Health is the first of up to 15 companies the new Fund will support–with a particular focus on those in digital health, healthcare IT, HR technology, fintech, insurtech, data analytics, and enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS). The Fund will also invest in spinouts from The Ohio State University in advanced materials, alternative energy, sensors and hardware, and ag and food tech. In addition to financing, FVF provides companies with the strategic resources needed to validate their product with key customers and markets, identify and recruit early talent, and build the right foundation for establishing and scaling the businesses. Rev1 funded 25 companies in 2020, making it one of the most active seed investors nationally.
About Rev1 Ventures
Rev1 Ventures is the startup studio that combines capital and strategic services to help startups scale and corporates innovate. Based in the Midwest, Rev1 aligns innovators and founders with corporate and research partners to access customers and markets, helping entrepreneurs build great companies. With a proven track record Rev1 is one of the more active investors in the nation. For more information, visit Rev1ventures.com.
About Redi.Health
In 2021 Redi.Health was founded with a simple goal: Empower patients to take control of and contribute to their health journey. We believe that when it comes to healthcare, the patient is often forgotten and left to navigate the overwhelming world of healthcare on their own. To fix this problem we developed Redi.Health. Redi puts more simplified tools in the hands of patients than ever before and creates novel pathways of connectivity to the support and resources patients wouldn’t otherwise have access to. It’s simple – we believe in patients and give them the tools to take control of their health.
