Healthcare News, Deals, and Investments Update August 24th, 2026
by Spenser Lin
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Healthcare Weekly News and Deals

  1. Francisco Partners to take Weave Communications (NYSE: WEAV) private for $650 million in an all-cash deal at $7.40 per share. The price is a 34% premium to Weave’s Monday closing price, and the company will delist after going public in 2021. The sponsor is buying a vertical platform serving independent medical, dental, optometry and veterinary practices, a customer base most software companies overlook. Weave generated $239 million of fiscal 2025 revenue, up 17%, and $65.5 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, also up 17%, yet its market value sits well below the $1.4 billion peak. Francisco Partners raised more than $75 billion and previously bought AdvancedMD for $1.125 billion. (Link)
  2. Universal Health Services (NYSE: UHS) has closed its $835 million debt-financed acquisition of virtual behavioral care provider Talkspace (NASD: TALK). The transaction valued Talkspace at $5.25 per share and was financed with debt. Talkspace keeps its brand and organizational structure, with CEO Jon Cohen reporting directly to UHS President and CEO Marc Miller. The target reported $229 million in revenue, $4.8 million in net income and $15.8 million in adjusted EBITDA in 2025, and runs a virtual network of more than 6,000 behavioral health professionals. Behavioral health already generated about 43% of the buyer’s $17.4 billion 2025 revenue, and UHS expects the deal to be slightly accretive to adjusted net income in the first year after closing. (Link)
  3. Thoma Bravo has to take Accelerant (NYSE: ARX) private at $20.25 per share in an all-cash deal valuing the specialty insurance risk exchange above $4 billion, with existing backer Altamont Capital Partners rolling over. The offer is a 49% premium to Accelerant’s closing price on 12 August 2026. Altamont Capital Partners, which controls around 82% of voting rights, supports the deal, and Altamont and the founders intend to keep an equity interest alongside Thoma Bravo. Thoma Bravo has committed equity, so completion does not depend on additional financing, and shareholders receive a 6% annual ticking fee if insurance regulatory approvals delay closing. Senior partner A.J. Rohde tied the thesis to MGA market growth. (Link)
  4. BioMarin (NASD: BMRN) to acquire Alesta Therapeutics for $275 million BioMarin Pharmaceutical has agreed to acquire Alesta Therapeutics to gain ALE1, a clinical-stage oral small molecule for hypophosphatasia. BioMarin will pay $275 million upfront and up to $215 million in development and regulatory milestones. Alesta will spin out all non-ALE1 assets prior to closing. ALE1 is being evaluated in a Phase 1/2a trial and has the potential to become the first oral therapy for the rare genetic bone disease. Closing is expected this quarter. (Link)
  5. Cityblock Health has signed an all-stock agreement to acquire Homeward Health and separately raised a $116 million Series E led by General Catalyst. Financial details of the all-stock acquisition were not disclosed. The $116 million Series E was led by General Catalyst and takes total capital raised past $900 million, against a $400 million 2021 round that set a roughly $5.7 billion valuation. The company says it is not focused on an exit at this time. Cityblock serves almost 200,000 members at $2.2 billion of annualized revenue, up 77% year over year, and the two businesses together will serve nearly 250,000 people. (Link)
  6. R1 to acquire Humata Health, the AI prior authorization company, to extend its Phare Operating System into payer-provider authorization workflows. Pricing was not disclosed and both parties are private. The investment case is denial prevention: prior authorization is a top-three driver of denials, and a KFF survey found one-third of insured adults call it the biggest burden in accessing care. Humata’s agentic workflows match payer policy, build AI-driven clinical bundles and manage requests to final approval, delivering up to a 96% first-pass approval rate while cutting write-offs by 30%, rescheduled appointments by 83% and staff touches by 45%. R1 folds the capability into Phare Intelligence and Payer Atlas and uses it to sell adjacent modules. (Link)
  7. Goldman Sachs Asset Management-backed Advanced Recovery Systems has acquired Promises Behavioral Health from Assured Healthcare Partners. Terms were not disclosed. Promises was previously backed by Assured Healthcare Partners, which converted its debt into equity in late 2021, after BlueMountain Capital Management bought the assets of bankrupt Elements Behavioral Health in 2018. Combined, the company operates 24 facilities in 14 states across medical detox, inpatient, residential and outpatient services. Goldman halted an auction of Advanced Recovery Systems in January, and addiction treatment dealmaking has fallen sharply, with six closings in the first half of 2026 against 19 a year earlier.(Link)
  8. General Catalyst-backed Radial has acquired TMS Health Partners, the MSO behind Mindful Health Solutions, delivering an exit for previous backer Aisling Capital. Terms were not disclosed. Radial is less than a year into its holding period with General Catalyst and has multiplied its clinical footprint with a single transaction. The combination brings Radial to 27 clinics across seven states, most of them from Mindful Health Solutions. The deal also caps a quick turnaround for Aisling Capital. Radial supports clinics with drug and device procurement, billing and RadialOS, an AI clinical decision support tools. (Link)
  9. Flexpoint sells ArtesRx to Linden Capital Partners Flexpoint Ford has completed the sale of ArtesRx, its specialty behavioral health pharmacy platform, to Linden Capital Partners. Formed in 2023, ArtesRx focuses on complex medication regimens for patients with serious mental illness, substance use disorders, and intellectual and developmental disabilities. Under Flexpoint ownership the platform expanded from three pharmacies in a single state to 16 locations across 15 states through organic growth and targeted M&A. Financial terms were not disclosed. (Link)
  10. BPOC partners with Master Medical Equipment and ReNew Biomedical BPOC has made strategic investments in Master Medical Equipment and ReNew Biomedical, sister companies that provide capital equipment distribution, rental, repair and preventative maintenance services to the pre-hospital and post-acute markets. The Jackson, Tennessee-based businesses offer new and refurbished equipment along with biomedical service across a national footprint. Founder and CEO Mark Taylor will continue to lead the companies. Financial terms were not disclosed. (Link)
  11. Truehelm and QHP Capital-backed InformedDNA has divested its Genetic Testing Utilization Management business unit to Zyter, a subsidiary of global technology company Infinite. Terms were not disclosed. InformedDNA is a portfolio company of Truehelm and QHP Capital, and the sale follows the May 2026 divestiture of its Payment Integrity business unit. The sponsors are concentrating remaining capital behind DNAimpact, InformedDNA’s precision health platform, rather than running three businesses at once. The divested unit pairs genetics-trained specialists with evidence-based review for health plans, a capability that grows more valuable as genetic test volume and complexity compound. Truehelm partner and board member Conor Green described the process as sharpening InformedDNA’s focus. (Link)
  12. U.S. Oral Surgery Management, backed by Oak Hill Capital, has partnered with Cottonwood Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery of Albuquerque in its third New Mexico transaction. Terms were not disclosed and both parties are private. USOSM is a management services organization that works exclusively with oral and maxillofacial surgeons and now spans 31 states. The specialist-only mandate is the differentiator against general dental consolidators, and single-practice tuck-ins remain the primary growth mechanism. CEO Doug Drew pointed to clinical reputation, patient care and safety as the selection criteria for the practice. USOSM provides operational, financial and administrative support to surgeons alongside wealth creation. (Link)
  13. Integrated Dermatology has entered the Kentucky market through a partnership with Knuckles Dermatology, which now operates as Integrated Dermatology of Kentucky. Terms were not disclosed and both parties are private. The partnership took effect August 18, 2026 and covers patients in Corbin, Richmond and surrounding southeastern Kentucky communities. Dr. Knuckles continues to practice, and two board-certified family nurse practitioners, Lauren Hayes and Jordan Patterson, join to expand provider capacity. Established in 2004, Integrated Dermatology operates in nearly 30 states and offers dermatologists profit-sharing and full clinical autonomy while handling operational and administrative work centrally.(Link)
  14. Concentra (NYSE: CON) has completed the acquisition of four Minnesota Occupational Health medical centers in the Twin Cities, taking its statewide network to 10 sites. Terms were not disclosed. The four acquired centers sit in Coon Rapids, Eagan, St. Paul Midway and Shakopee, and began operating as Concentra on August 17. Concentra has served Minnesota since 2018 and will now run 10 medical centers across the state. The buyer also plans significant investment in the St. Paul Midway center to make it a regional flagship. The economics rest on density and employer cross-selling across injury care, physical therapy, drug testing and DOT exams. (Link)
  15. Momentum Health Partners has expanded its investment in Desert Pain Specialists, the Rancho Mirage, California interventional pain management practice it first backed in 2023. The amount was not disclosed. The Phoenix-based platform deployed additional capital into Desert Pain Specialists following the acquisition and integration of Dr. Roland Reinhart’s pain management practice. The new capital funds physician recruitment, service line expansion and operational growth across California’s Coachella Valley, where the practice has posted growth in new patient volumes since integrating. Partner Ryan Harper framed the follow-on as confidence in the team. Momentum invests across autism therapy, developmental therapies, behavioral health and specialty ambulatory care. (Link)
  16. SEVA has made a growth equity investment in healthcare price transparency company Serif Health, the first outside institutional capital the San Francisco business since 2020 launch. Terms were not disclosed. The round is Serif Health’s first outside institutional capital since it launched in 2020, and SEVA founder and managing partner Shalin Mehta joins the board. Serif cleans, validates and standardises pricing data from hundreds of payers and thousands of hospitals through its Signal platform, used by more than 250 organisations to benchmark rates, evaluate networks and track market dynamics. Proceeds accelerate sales and expand a pipeline of product features and data APIs, following the 2026 launch of Signal Ask, a plain-language query tool. (Link)
  17. Providence Equity Partners to acquire a majority stake in CheckedUp, with Varsity Healthcare Partners joining as strategic minority. Terms were not disclosed. Providence is acquiring alongside the co-founders, who continue to lead the company, and Varsity Healthcare Partners as a healthcare services-focused minority investor. CheckedUp reaches >17,000 specialty healthcare providers and 15 million patients through waiting-room televisions and interactive exam-room wallboards, and works with most of the top 40 pharmaceutical manufacturers. Providence is underwriting this as a digital out-of-home media asset, consistent with prior positions in OUTFRONT Media, DoubleVerify and Smartly.io. (Link)
  18. Cypress Ridge Capital-backed Cresso Health has partnered with Slate Financial, the Southwest Medicare and health insurance distributor. Terms were not disclosed. Cresso Health is backed by New York-based healthcare investor Cypress Ridge Capital. The logic is distribution roll-up economics. Slate gains access to Cresso’s carrier relationships, distribution infrastructure, proprietary marketing and lead-generation tools and compliance toolkit, while Cresso extends its field presence. CEO Frank Pistone described the goal as an omni-channel, multi-product platform serving the senior market. Cypress Ridge invests exclusively in healthcare with a thematic, growth-oriented approach. (Link)
  19. Rockmont Partners has exited RepScrubs, the automated scrubs dispensing platform, with THL named as acquirer in Healthcare DealHub’s headline. Terms were not disclosed. Healthcare DealHub titles the transaction as THL acquiring RepScrubs from Rockmont Partners, while the deal note itself describes the buyer as undisclosed. Rockmont led a secondary purchase in the business in 2024, making this a short hold. RepScrubs runs an automated scrubs dispensing platform that manages vendor credentialing and enforces policy compliance for perioperative vendors at hospitals and surgery centers. The asset sits in digital and health technology, which has recorded 289 tracked deals year to date. (Link)
  20. Berks Community Health Center to merge with Lancaster-based Union Community Care, a distress-driven nonprofit combination pending regulatory approval. No purchase price applies. Board vice chair Missy Orlando named two financial triggers, starting with a sharp drop in federal Medicaid funding from January that could cost roughly 100,000 Berks County residents their benefits. The center has also struggled to collect patient payments and lost several providers over the past year. Union Community Care operates 25 locations across Lancaster, Lebanon and Chester counties, covering family medicine, urgent care, dental, school-based care, behavioral health and pharmacy. (Link)
  21. Mitsui Chemicals (Tokyo: 4183) has completed its acquisition of Utah-based dental products maker Ultradent Products, making it a wholly owned subsidiary alongside existing dental unit Kulzer. The deal closed on August 14, ahead of the September 2026 schedule, after competition and investment approvals came through early. Mitsui is making oral care the third earnings pillar of its Life & Healthcare Solutions segment and targeting the number two position in global dental materials. The company expects more than $40 million in annual synergy by fiscal 2030. Integration moves the oral care global headquarters to the United States, with Ultradent CEO Dirk Jeffs also taking over as Kulzer CEO while Kulzer’s Chris Holden becomes Chief Strategy and Integration Officer of MC Dental Holdings America.(Link)
  22. Osage Venture Partners-backed Curavit Clinical Research has acquired the CRO assets of Lindus Health, which is shifting to its own therapeutic pipeline as Lindus Therapeutics. Terms were not disclosed. The transaction follows Lindus shifting focus to developing its own pipeline of therapeutic assets. What Curavit bought is European delivery capability, not scale for its own sake: the combined business can now run decentralized, hybrid and traditional trials across North America and Europe under one operational partner. Nate Lentz, managing partner at Osage Venture Partners and a Curavit board member, tied the thesis to sponsors needing more flexible, technology-enabled approaches to generating clinical evidence. CEO Joel Morse positioned the platform against both regional niche CROs and legacy providers. (Link)

Venture Deals and Other

  1. 8VC and Town Hall Ventures have led a $53 million Series D in Hopscotch Primary Care. 8VC and Town Hall Ventures led the round, with existing investors aMoon Fund, Citi Impact Fund, Alumni Ventures and K2 HealthVentures participating and new investors including the Autism Impact Fund, Kleiner Perkins chairman John Doerr, Heritage Provider Network founder Dr. Richard Merkin and the Leon Levine Foundation. Founded in 2021, Hopscotch serves more than 15,000 patients across the rural Southeast, concentrated in western North Carolina. Investors have hard numbers to point at: a Net Promoter Score of 89, patient retention above 90%, medical loss ratio improvement of more than 25 percentage points over two years and profitable operations in western North Carolina. (Link)
  2. Section 32, Thiel Bio, Founders Fund, Breyer Capital, Blue Venture Fund and JSL Health Capital have funded Network Bio’s $50 million launch alongside an NVIDIA partnership. Network Bio, a Palo Alto company building AI models trained on human biological data, launched on August 19 with $50 million from investors including Section 32, Thiel Bio, Founders Fund, Breyer Capital, Blue Venture Fund and JSL Health Capital. The money funds a research network with Mass General Brigham, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Colorado Anschutz, supplying tissue and blood samples paired with longitudinal clinical outcomes across immunology, metabolic, cardiovascular and autoimmune disease. Investors are paying for exclusive data access rather than a clinical asset. The launch came with an NVIDIA partnership to scale the models. (Link)
  3. InnovaHealth Partners led Channel Medsystems’ Series C to $30 million, backing the commercial expansion of the Cerene endometrial cryotherapy platform. The Berkeley medical technology company has reached $30 million in an ongoing Series C led by InnovaHealth Partners. InnovaHealth has backed Channel Medsystems since 2021. Proceeds fund commercial organization expansion, physician and patient awareness, professional education and training, clinical evidence generation and market development infrastructure. The raise follows a commercial relaunch of the platform. Founder and Managing Partner Mortimer Berkowitz III pointed to unmet need in women’s health backed by clinical evidence and an experienced leadership team. (Link)
  4. MaxQ Medical raises $31.5 million Series A backed by Olympus MaxQ Medical has closed a $31.5 million Series A led by Atlantic Blue Ventures, S3 Ventures and Olympus Innovation Ventures, with participation from Hillside Capital. The financing advances the company’s transurethral imaging-and-therapy platform for prostate disease, the first spinout from Orchard Ultrasound Innovation. The system combines real-time imaging with tissue-selective therapy in a single outpatient procedure, initially targeting BPH with planned expansion into focal therapy for prostate cancer. Proceeds support clinical program advancement and team expansion. (Link)
  5. Leal Therapeutics announces $30 million Series A extension Leal Therapeutics has completed a $30 million second close of its Series A, adding Eli Lilly as a new investor alongside existing backers OrbiMed, Newpath Partners, Euclidean Capital, SV Health Investors’ Dementia Discovery Fund and others. Proceeds will advance LTX-001, a first-in-class brain-penetrant oral GLS1 inhibitor, through initial readout of its newly initiated Phase 1b/2a trial in schizophrenia, and progress LTX-002 through additional dosing cohorts in an ongoing Phase 1/2 ALS study. (Link)
  6. Werewolf Therapeutics and Ambros Therapeutics announce merger and concurrent $150 million private placement Werewolf Therapeutics (Nasdaq: HOWL) and Ambros Therapeutics have entered an all-stock merger agreement accompanied by an oversubscribed $150 million private placement co-led by RA Capital and Janus Henderson. The combined company, to operate as Ambros Therapeutics and trade as AMBX, will advance neridronate in the pivotal CRPS-RISE Phase 3 trial for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Type 1. Capital is expected to fund operations through Phase 3 topline results, planned NDA submission and into the first half of 2029. (Link)
  7. Gossamer Bio announces up to $250 million structured private placement Gossamer Bio has arranged a structured private placement of up to $250 million, including $150 million of committed capital, to fund development of seralutinib through potential FDA approval. The financing extends runway for late-stage clinical and regulatory activities surrounding the company’s lead pulmonary arterial hypertension program. (Link)
  8. Biotechnology investor Bob Nelsen has led a $20 million round in Astromech, joined by Peak 6, NeoGenesis Capital, Builders VC and CAZ Investments, lifting the Colossal Biosciences spinout to a $3.8 billion valuation. The round was led by Bob Nelsen with participation from Peak 6, NeoGenesis Capital, Builders VC and CAZ Investments, bringing total capital raised to $60 million. The valuation is unusual relative to check size, and what investors are buying is founder pedigree and a data position rather than near-term revenue. Astromech was co-founded by Ben Lamm and geneticist George Church, spun out of Colossal Biosciences, and uses 3.8 billion years of evolutionary history as a primary training signal. Longevity is the proving ground, with 46 longevity-associated genes mapped so far. (Link)

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