Health Start-Ups! – The Crowdfunding Floodgates Are (Kind of) Open

Originally published on MedCityNews.

Originally published on MedCityNews.

It’s been just over one year since the JOBS Act was passed, which makes equity- and debt-based crowdfunding legal for accredited and nonaccredited investors. Although the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has yet to finalize and implement specific rules around those provisions, several online platforms have plowed ahead and created private portals for accredited investors and startups to find each other in the meantime.

Within the last two weeks, two new platforms focused on equity-based crowdfunding for healthcare have launched. Last week, a company called Healthfundr came forward with a new site for funding later-stage healthcare startups. Created by a pair of former securities attorneys and a doctor, the platform exposes investors to a handful of companies that have been vetted by the Healthfundr team.

Today, a similar new portal called VentureHealth announced its launch to give investors better access to compelling healthcare innovations and enable them to diversify their portfolios. Founded and managed by Mir Imran and Andrew Farquharson, both entrepreneurs and managing directors at life sciences venture fund InCube Ventures, VentureHealth says it targets opportunities in medical devices, pharma, diagnostics, digital health and health services where its investors can potentially contribute at least $1 million to a deal that’s syndicated with institutional investors.