Endpoints News
What investors were talking about at HLTH Read in browser
Endpoints News
Thursday, 23 October 2025
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44% of 2025 health tech funds go to provider operations
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sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank
Getting picky
We’re back home recovering from HLTH, where four days of nonstop meetings with executives and investors sharpened our view of where money is going in health tech.
And when it comes to the state of healthcare funding, the buzzword was ROI. Investors are getting more selective about seeing results before committing. And despite a year of flashy megarounds, a number of early and mid-stage startups are quietly struggling to raise.
Town Hall Venture’s new $440 million health tech fund last week came up a few times, in part because there hasn’t been a new health tech fund raise in a while. 
What people are investing in is changing, too. Now that virtually any company can build their own software using AI, healthcare companies are starting to spend on hardware instead, head of relationship management, technology and healthcare at Silicon Valley Bank Jennifer Friel Goldstein told us. That includes things like in-person clinics, alternative care models and diagnostic tools. That's similar to what the SVB team is seeing elsewhere in tech-related industries. 
“Now that it's so easy to create code, that in and of itself isn't enough. And so we're seeing a lot of enthusiasm from investors in more than traditional things that need to be done, even if it's the picks and shovels behind AI,” she said. “The infrastructure needs to support the explosion of innovation that's happening with the tools we have.”
- Ngai
P.S. - Getting the post-conference blues (or maybe feeling some Vegas FOMO? Rare but possible)? Our Health Tech Day + Happy Hour in New York is only two weeks away! See you there? Get your tickets here — we’re running low on tickets for the in-person happy hour, so get yours while you can! 
Here’s what’s new
Amy Gleason, a top Trump health official, calls for more access to patient data
Gleason, who noted she was speaking at the annual Las Vegas health tech conference HLTH as a private citizen, said AI has huge potential to offer clinical insights that could help with things like diagnosing a disease early or preventing trips to the emergency room by identifying missing medication. 
Mark Cuban's online pharmacy to partner with White House's TrumpRx
Bil­lion­aire en­tre­pre­neur Mark Cuban and his heav­i­ly dis­count­ed, most­ly gener­ic drug on­line phar­ma­cy will link up with Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump's in­com­ing on­line mar­ket­place TrumpRx, aim­ing to con­nect more pa­tients with bet­ter drug prices.
After financial troubles, Grail raises $325M from Hims and others
Grail has raised $325 mil­lion in a pri­vate place­ment, bol­ster­ing the com­pa­ny's bal­ance sheet as it pre­pares to ask the FDA to ap­prove its blood test that's de­signed to de­tect dozens of can­cers. The funding came from new and existing institutional investors, including the telehealth provider Hims & Hers.
That’s a wrap
Verily CEO Stephen Gillett and Endpoints editor Lydia Ramsey Pflanzer speak at HLTH in Las Vegas
Over the next week or so, we’ll be digesting our notes from HLTH and catching our breath. Stay tuned, if you missed my conversation with Verily CEO Stephen Gillett, I’ll have the full story out soon.
This week in health Тech

UnitedHealth Group’s Optum debuted a new system, Optum Real, to make approving claims easier with AI. At HLTH, I chatted with UnitedHealth’s chief medical officer Margaret-Mary Wilson about how the healthcare giant’s thinking about using AI. First, she said, the company maintains that AI doesn’t replace providers. That extends to coverage decisions. “We firmly advocate that AI is not used to make decisions or to determine what's appropriate to be covered,” Wilson said.

There’s also a risk with using AI. 

“We also think that there has got to be a strong emphasis on the responsible piece of AI,” she said. “And we cannot leverage AI or any technology, with the assumption that, because it's emerging technology, it comes without risk. It's like any other intervention.”
At HLTH, Ro CMO Melynda Barnes shared with me the impact of Serena Williams on the company’s GLP-1 business. In August, the tennis superstar joined Ro as an ambassador and disclosed for the first time that she was taking a GLP-1 medication.

“We've seen a lot of sustained uptick in patients and outreach,” Barnes said. “But also, the number of people who write to their physician to say, ‘You know, I've been thinking about Ro for the past year or two. When I saw Serena, I thought that was a sign. I'm happy to be starting my journey and joining Serena.’”
On stage at HLTH, adviser to HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. Calley Means blasted GLP-1 companies at HLTH for offering champagne and ice cream at the conference. "Every installation here is about how to drug people after they've been poisoned," he added, saying that companies only give “lip service” to healthy eating.
Evernow founder and former CEO Alicia Jackson has been appointed as director of ARPA-H, Bloomberg reports. Before her time in health tech and starting the virtual menopause care company, Jackson worked for the Defense Department.
New research from Brown University looked at whether generally available LLMs followed mental health ethical standards, finding that they violate those standards.
DocGo bought telehealth company SteadyMD. The move adds 50-state virtual care to the services the publicly traded company, which operates mobile clinics, offers. As part of the acquisition, DocGo noted that SteadyMD is expected to make about $25 million in revenue.
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