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Healthcare News, Deals, and Investments Update August 31st, 2026

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Healthcare Weekly News and Deals

  1. Sword Health to acquire OrangeDot, the parent company of Headspace, in an all-cash transaction reported between $200-$300 million. Sword Health, last valued at about $4 billion after raising just under $500 million, is buying OrangeDot for cash, with OrangeDot surviving as a wholly owned subsidiary. The $200–300 million range is a severe markdown against the roughly $3 billion at which Headspace and Ginger combined in 2021 and sits below the $321 million Headspace had raised. The deal follows Sword’s $285 million purchase of Kaia Health and extends its move from musculoskeletal care into behavioural health alongside its Mind and Dawn products. The Massachusetts filing dates from 22 July; the effective date is 14 September. (Link)
  2. American Healthcare REIT, Inc. (NYSE: AHR) has completed a $197 million acquisition of two Northern California senior housing communities from a joint venture between Affinius Capital and Alliance Residential Co. American Healthcare REIT has bought Sonrisa Senior Living in Roseville, rebranded Avella at Roseville, and The Watermark at Almaden, 545 units in total, for $197 million. Sonrisa alone traded at $94.1 million. The buyer has now completed roughly $1.4 billion of senior living acquisitions in 2026 and is pursuing a pipeline including $953 million under executed agreements, among them an $873 million Kensington portfolio. Senior housing occupancy reached 89.9% in the second quarter. Note the source headline wrongly casts the REIT as seller. (Link)
  3. Thomas Park Investments has acquired a four-property, $70 million medical outpatient portfolio from Stewart Investment Properties. The Annapolis healthcare real estate platform paid $70 million for 165,637 square feet across three Mid-Atlantic submarkets. The package is 1420 Beverly Road in McLean, a 47,185-square-foot building fully leased and anchored by MedStar Health; 6849 Old Dominion Drive in McLean, 69,330 square feet and 89% leased with Johns Hopkins Medicine as anchor; Children’s National at the former Takoma Theatre on Fourth Street NW in Washington, 24,140 square feet; and Luminis Health Easton Pavilion in Easton, Maryland, 24,982 square feet and fully leased to Luminis Health. Each asset is health-system anchored with remaining term and contractual rent growth. (Link)
  4. Ambulatory Partner Holdings has agreed to pay $54 million for a 60% stake in Atlas Surgery Center, the physician-owned neurosurgical ASC in Amherst, New York. Ambulatory Partner Holdings, an LLC owned equally by Rafael Axen, M.D., Matthew Jenkins and Ann Sariego, is buying 60% from seven of the nine physician members who together hold 90%.. Atlas, at 50 George Karl Boulevard, is a multispecialty Article 28 centre known for outpatient neurosurgery, angiograms, carotid stenting and complex spine, running on the order of 3,000 cases a year. Purchase price is equity-funded. New York’s Public Health and Health Planning Council has the establishment application on its 17 September agenda. (Link)
  5. The Federal Trade Commission has approved the final consent order clearing Ascension Health Alliance’s $3.9 billion acquisition of AmSurg LLC. The FTC finalised its order on 25 August, letting Ascension close a $3.9 billion purchase first agreed in mid-2025. Six centres go to SC Affiliates, a national ASC operator, and a seventh in Panama City to Florida Gastroenterology Center, a physician group already holding a minority stake. The divestitures cover Nashville, Panama City, Tulsa, Waco and Wichita, where the agency alleged reduced competition in gastroenterology, ophthalmology and orthopaedic outpatient procedures. Ascension must also give the FTC prior notice of ASC acquisitions in those metros for ten years. AmSurg operates more than 250 centres across 34 states. (Link)
  6. McKesson Corporation (NYSE: MCK) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Precision Medicine Group, LLC from Blackstone (NYSE: BX) for approximately $2.25 billion. McKesson is paying roughly $2.25 billion for the Bethesda-based business after a multi-year Blackstone hold. The buyer is underwriting a services asset rather than a distribution one: biomarker intelligence, laboratory services, a global CRO, market access consulting and commercialisation support. That fits a portfolio McKesson has been reshaping by shedding non-core assets and concentrating capital in oncology and specialty, where Oncology & Multispecialty revenue rose 33% to $14.2 billion in fiscal first quarter 2026. The target will report inside that segment. Closing is subject to customary conditions and regulatory clearances. (Link)
  7. Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) to acquire Merida Biosciences for up to $2.875 billion in cash, adding a precision immunology platform aimed at pathogenic autoantibodies. Consideration is cash up to $2.875 billion, covering an undisclosed upfront payment and contingent milestones. Cambridge-based Merida is building biologics that selectively degrade disease-causing antibodies while sparing normal immune function. Lead program MER511 is in Phase 1 for Graves’ disease and thyroid eye disease, with initial data showing reductions in pathogenic thyroid-stimulating antibodies and a favourable safety profile. A preclinical program, MER769, targets food allergy, asthma and chronic spontaneous urticaria. Merida launched last year with a $121 million Series A co-led by Bain Capital Life Sciences, BVF Partners and Third Rock Ventures. Close is expected in the fourth quarter, subject to customary clearances. (Link)
  8. Argenx SE (Euronext & Nasdaq: ARGX) completed a $2.2 billion all-cash acquisition of Forte Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: FBRX) at $77.00 per share. The close, announced 27 August, follows a cash tender that drew about 87% of Forte shares. The deal adds FB102, which has clinical proof-of-concept in vitiligo and celiac disease and potential application across multiple autoimmune indications, to argenx’s immunology portfolio. The original agreement was signed 27 July at a 40.5% premium to Forte’s then-close. The transaction extends a 2026 pattern of large-cap immunology buyers paying for de-risked, mechanism-differentiated assets rather than waiting for later-stage readouts. Forte is now a wholly owned subsidiary and will delist from Nasdaq. (Link)
  9. Advent International has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a majority stake in New Zealand Clinical Research Group in a transaction local press valued at roughly NZ$1 billion, with Waterman Capital and clinician shareholders rolling over. Advent, one of the largest global private equity firms, is buying majority control of NZCR Group, a physician-led clinical trials platform operating across New Zealand and Australia under the NZCR, CMAX, Optimal and Fusion brands. Advent’s own release did not print a price; BusinessDesk and the Australian Financial Review put the equity value at about NZ$1 billion. Waterman Capital, which held 52%, and clinician shareholders are keeping a significant minority. Close is targeted for the fourth quarter subject to regulatory approvals. Advent will partner with CEO Tony Moffatt to deepen sponsor relationships and extend the network internationally. (Link)
  10. Radiology Partners has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Everlight Radiology from UK private equity firm Livingbridge in a cross-border teleradiology transaction reported at roughly $1 billion (approximately A$1 billion, or about US$715 million). Livingbridge is exiting Everlight after taking majority control in 2021 for a reported US$344 million, having itself bought the asset from Intermediate Capital Group. Everlight’s 800-plus consultant radiologists across 40-plus countries read on a follow-the-sun basis, roughly 2.5 million exams a year for 340-plus clients, avoiding premium US night-shift rates. Radiology Partners intends to extend Mosaic Drafting AI across the acquired network. The 17 August edition covered Livingbridge putting the asset up for sale with Radiology Partners named as bidder; this is the signed agreement. Regulatory clearances pending. (Link)
  11. TowerBrook Capital Partners to acquire a majority stake in Korean-American women’s wellness brand Rael for 400 billion won ($290 million), buying out a shareholder register including SoftBank Ventures, Unilever Ventures, Lotte Shopping, Shinsegae and GS Retail. TowerBrook is paying 400 billion won, about $290 million, for majority control of Rael, according to people familiar with the matter. The sponsor is buying a consumer health asset with a proven digital channel: Rael became Amazon’s top-selling sanitary pad label on an organic feminine care proposition. The cap table it is taking out is unusually broad for a brand of this size, spanning venture investors SoftBank Ventures and Unilever Ventures alongside strategic Korean retail capital from Lotte Shopping, Shinsegae and GS Retail. The deal is a rare cross-border consumer exit for Korean sponsors in a market skewed toward beauty. (Link)
  12. BioXcel Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: BTAI) has filed Chapter 11 and entered a stalking-horse sale with Teva Pharmaceuticals at $57.5 million upfront with milestones up to $125 million. BioXcel and two OnkosXcel subsidiaries petitioned in Delaware on 27 August to run a court-supervised 363 sale of substantially all assets. Teva Pharmaceuticals International GmbH is the stalking-horse bidder for $57.5 million in cash, assumption of specified liabilities, and up to $67.5 million of contingent development payments — a ceiling of $125 million if milestones hit. The estate includes IGALMI, the approved dexmedetomidine sublingual film for agitation, and the pending BXCL501 at-home filing. Teva posted a $5.7 million good-faith deposit and framed the bid as consistent with its Pivot to Growth business-development screen. Higher bids can still emerge at auction. (Link)
  13. Beyond Air, Inc. (Nasdaq: XAIR) has agreed to sell its controlling stake in NeuroNOS Israel Ltd. to Tel Aviv-listed UNIVO Pharmaceutical Industries (TASE: UNVO) for equity, warrants and up to $32.5 million in milestones. Beyond Air is selling 5,000,000 ordinary shares, about 58% of NeuroNOS on a fully diluted basis. Consideration is UNIVO ordinary shares equal to 19.99% of UNIVO’s issued capital, five-year warrants on a further 19.99% of UNIVO awards exercisable at $0.01, plus up to $6.5 million in cash development milestones and up to $26 million in commercial milestones. NeuroNOS is developing blood-brain-barrier-crossing small molecules that regulate nitric oxide, including BA-102 for autism spectrum disorder and Alzheimer’s and BA-101 for glioblastoma, both still preclinical. The sale lets Beyond Air concentrate on its nitric-oxide device franchise. (Link)
  14. Savista, the Alpharetta-based healthcare operations and revenue cycle management company, has acquired ABW Medical, an ambulatory revenue cycle management provider serving federally qualified health centres, medical groups, MSOs and virtual care platforms. Savista is buying its way out of a single-segment concentration. Its existing base is acute: more than 800 clients across 49 states, an Epic-certified training workforce and cancer registry services built over 35 years. ABW Medical adds the non-acute end, including community health centres, FQHCs, rural providers and virtual care, plus preferred RCM partner status inside the athenahealth ecosystem. That diversifies EMR exposure away from Epic dependence and adds safety-net billing around Medicaid wraparound payments. Clients pick up Savista’s global delivery scale and eligibility, coding and A/R tooling. (Link)
  15. Eqwal Group has acquired Atlantic Pro Care, the Portland, Maine prosthetics and orthotics practice, extending the French patient-care network’s East Coast footprint. Eqwal is a global prosthetics and orthotics patient-care group that already owns Steeper in the UK and has been rolling up US clinics including United Prosthetics, American Orthopedics, Optech, South Beach Prosthetics and Prosthetic & Orthotic Group. Atlantic Pro Care, founded in 1993 by J.P. Donovan in Portland, fits custom devices for patients with upper- and lower-limb loss and spinal conditions and handles assessment, fabrication, fitting and rehab. The buyer framed the tuck-in as deepening US patient-care density rather than adding a product brand. No purchase price was published. (Link)
  16. Thurston Group, the Chicago healthcare-focused private equity firm, has made a platform investment in Pixel Health, a Holyoke, Massachusetts provider of IT consulting and managed services to hospitals and large physician groups. Thurston is entering healthcare IT services for the first time through Pixel Health, founded in 2001 and built into a multi-brand group spanning strategy and transformation consulting, managed IT services, and product sales and licensing. Managing partner Dan Davis framed the deal as consistent with the firm’s practice of backing leaders in high-growth healthcare verticals. The sponsor has installed Brad Mondschein, previously the company’s chief operating and legal officer, as chief executive. The investment case is outsourced IT for health systems that cannot staff internally against rising cybersecurity, interoperability and AI-integration complexity. (Link)
  17. BV Investment Partners-backed Imagenet has acquired Analytica Consulting, the California data engineering and artificial intelligence firm, in a transaction that closed on 21 August 2026. Imagenet is moving from transaction-processing BPO toward an end-to-end data and AI solutions position for payers. Analytica Consulting, founded in 2015, brings cloud data warehousing, automated ETL pipelines, enterprise visualisation, data science and governance. The commercial angle is in-situ modernisation: layering pipelines and machine learning models on top of health plans’ existing core systems rather than requiring replacement, and applying prescriptive models to denial trends across digital mailroom, claims adjudication and contact centre lines. The target retains its government, life sciences, manufacturing and education clients. (Link)
  18. Switchboard Health has acquired virtual musculoskeletal provider Livara Health, formerly SpineZone, and closed an oversubscribed equity round of more than $5 million backed by First Trust Capital Partners, Route 66 Ventures, A1 Health Ventures, Allumia Ventures and Martin Ventures. The acquisition converts Switchboard from a referral navigation software layer into a value-based care delivery provider. Livara, founded by orthopaedic spine surgeon Kamshad Raiszadeh, pairs orthopaedic physicians with physical therapists and psychosocial providers, and its outcomes were independently validated by the Validation Institute in 2024 at a 43% reduction in MSK spend, largely through avoided low-value surgery. Switchboard reports routed patient volume up 500% over nine months. This is its second acquisition in under a year after Conduce Health. The raise draws both companies’ existing investors plus new backers. (Link)
  19. WellStack, the Madison, Wisconsin healthcare data platform led by Chief Executive Rich Waller, has acquired DeLorean Artificial Intelligence, the predictive analytics and risk stratification company led by Chief Executive Severence MacLaughlin, to build an end-to-end healthcare decision intelligence platform.WellStack runs an agentic healthcare data platform with a managed data foundation, analytical studio and modular Decision Hubs. DeLorean AI adds continuous evaluation of clinical, claims and operational data to flag emerging risks, predict adverse events and recommend next actions. The combination targets the gap between data aggregation and intervention, moving customers from what happened to what to do about it. Client case studies cite improved patient adherence, reduced avoidable utilisation and revenue optimisation. MacLaughlin framed the merger as necessary for deep integration with health system data lakes and EMRs. (Link)
  20. ALIS, the Chicago-based senior living clinical and operational software platform, has acquired the Ella and elbi technology platforms from TapRoot Interventions & Solutions in its first acquisition. ALIS has grown organically from a clinical EHR into an operating system unifying CRM, clinical, billing, AI and business intelligence; Ella and elbi are its first bought capability. The platforms deliver point-of-care, AI-native guidance to frontline caregivers handling dementia and behavioural episodes, using non-pharmacological, person-centred interventions. The economics sit in two measurable outcomes senior living operators are judged on: fewer high-risk behavioural incidents and reduced psychotropic medication reliance, both increasingly tied to reimbursement and length of stay. The platforms also capture behavioural data for population health reporting. Announced at the buyer’s user conference. (Link)
  21. Globus Medical, Inc. (NYSE: GMED) has acquired Higgs Boson Health, the Durham, North Carolina digital healthcare experience company incubated out of Duke University, to build out its surgical intelligence pillar. What Globus is buying is a team of software developers and AI scientists rather than a revenue base. The acquirer frames the technology as part of a surgical intelligence pillar linking outcomes and analytics in a closed loop across the full episode of care. The stated long-term target is 95% good outcomes at ten years in musculoskeletal surgery, and management is treating patient and provider experience as the missing layer of that ecosystem. The deal follows a second quarter reported on 6 August in which sales grew and non-GAAP EPS guidance was raised. (Link)
  22. Ekoscan Integrity Group, the Eurazeo-backed French non-destructive testing group, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the US-based NDT Digital business of Carestream Health, Inc., adding the INDUSTREX computed and digital radiography portfolio. Ekoscan is buying Carestream Health’s US NDT Digital unit — computed radiography systems, digital radiography detectors and imaging software under the INDUSTREX brand — plus the commercial, applications and service organisation in Rochester, New York. Radiographic imaging joins the buyer’s existing ultrasound and eddy-current lines, making a multi-method inspection platform for aerospace and defence, oil and gas and power generation. Carestream is narrowing to healthcare imaging. Ekoscan has been an active consolidator, backed by Eurazeo and EDF Pulse Ventures. Closing is expected in the fourth quarter of 2026. (Link)
  23. Golden State Dermatology, the physician-owned platform backed by Sorenson Capital and Yukon Partners, has acquired Summit Dermatology in Colorado Springs, its first move outside California. Golden State Dermatology has been a California story, roughly 45 locations and more than 125 providers built through steady practice tuck-ins with Sorenson Capital and Yukon Partners behind it. Summit Dermatology, led by board-certified dermatologists Kevin Whaley and Jeanne Osborn, is the first out-of-state platform entry and opens the Colorado market. The target offers medical and procedural dermatology including skin cancer screening and Mohs micrographic surgery, and retains its location, phone number and staff. Founder Ed Becker frames the strategy as building the leading comprehensive dermatology network across the Western US. (Link)
  24. Regent Surgical has added Integrated Surgical Center of Arizona, an Avondale multispecialty centre owned by IMS Care, AZ Heart Arrhythmia Associates and Valley GI Consultants, to its ambulatory surgery centre network. Regent Surgical, founded in 2001 and headquartered in Nashville, is a developer and operator of ambulatory surgery centres that has grown from 8 to 32 centres in eight years on site-neutral payment economics. The Arizona addition is a physician-partnership structure rather than an outright buyout: ISCA is owned by IMS Care, the state’s largest independent multispecialty physician group, cardiac electrophysiology group AZ Heart Arrhythmia Associates, and Valley GI Consultants. The strategic value is cardiac migration into outpatient settings across greater Phoenix. Regent also runs a joint venture with Cleveland Clinic. (Link)
  25. Great Point Partners-backed VetnCare has acquired Geary Veterinary Hospital, the Walnut Creek, California practice founded in 1979 and led by Dr. Gillian Hamilton and Dr. Erica Weiss. Great Point Partners, the Greenwich healthcare-only investor, backed VetnCare in 2022; Geary is the seventh acquisition since, and the second in roughly six weeks after Holistic Veterinary Care in Oakland on 14 July. The company has more than doubled in size in three years under that ownership. The model is regional density rather than national scale: VetnCare concentrates in Northern California, and Geary deepens the East Bay position with a practice offering wellness and preventive care, diagnostics and imaging, surgery, dental and senior pet care. (Link)
  26. Gravity 360, Inc., the Covington, Kentucky parent of Gravity Diagnostics, has acquired Med-Lake Laboratory, LLC, a CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited high-complexity clinical laboratory in Milledgeville, Georgia. Gravity 360 is building a regional laboratory platform across the southern United States, and Med-Lake gives it an operating base outside Kentucky for the first time. Founded in 2018, the target serves physician practices, skilled nursing facilities, behavioural health providers, judicial programmes and urgent care clinics across Georgia and Alabama, with a testing portfolio spanning clinical toxicology, blood and clinical chemistry, PCR infectious disease and reference services. Rather than consolidating volume into Kentucky, the buyer is retaining the Georgia laboratory, its team and its courier network as the foundation for further expansion. (Link)
  27. The Landes Group, the Dallas healthcare real estate investment firm, has completed its acquisition of Encore Medical Center in Bryant, Arkansas from Arkansas Heart Hospital and finalised a long-term lease with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, financed with CGA Capital. The Landes Group has closed on a 108,055 square foot, 53-bed hospital and simultaneously locked in its tenant. UAMS gains capacity without deploying capital, paying annual rent reported at roughly $8.16 million with 2.1% escalation and a purchase option in ten years. That structure is the firm’s core strategy: single-tenant, net-leased healthcare assets where ownership is paired with financing that preserves provider capital. Longstanding financing partner CGA Capital supported the transaction, extending a relationship spanning more than $1.2 billion. Arkansas Heart Hospital operates the facility through 30 September, with UAMS assuming control on 1 October. (Link)
  28. Calera Capital-backed Cypress Health Partners has added Boston Sports Medicine’s ten outpatient clinics to the Bay State Physical Therapy network, effective 27 August. Cypress Health Partners, the Calera Capital-backed outpatient physical therapy platform operating across the Northeast, has partnered with Boston Sports Medicine, one of Greater Boston’s most established physical therapy providers. BSM’s ten outpatient clinics join the Bay State Physical Therapy network, expanding access across Massachusetts communities after more than 25 years of referral-base building. The transaction lands as the outpatient PT sector shifts from pure density plays toward a second phase of value creation focused on patient acquisition and reimbursement yield from existing clinical capacity. (Link)

Venture Deals and Other

  1. RA Capital has joined a $120 million Series C for AusperBio Therapeutics that will fund the Phase 3 registrational program for a functional hepatitis B candidate, taking capital raised since 2024 past $340 million.AusperBio, which operates from Hangzhou and California, closed the $120 million Series C on 31 August led by a new strategic investor, with RA Capital Management joining and existing backers HanKang Capital, Sherpa Capital, InnoPinnacle Fund, Qiming Venture Partners, YuanBio Venture Capital and CDH Investments returning. Proceeds fund the Phase 3 registrational program and commercialisation work for lead candidate AHB-137, advance next-generation candidate AHB-171, and support combination-therapy development for chronic hepatitis B. The round is the largest venture check in this week’s book and is a China-plus-US therapeutics financing rather than a services deal. (Link)
  2. The Gates Foundation has committed up to $35 million to ProFound Therapeutics, including $20 million initially, to find placental and serum protein targets for preeclampsia and eclampsia. ProFound Therapeutics uses its ProFoundry platform against the expanded human proteome. The Gates money funds discovery of novel proteins expressed in placenta and serum from women with preeclampsia and eclampsia, new drug targets and biomarkers, and a disease-specific AI tool. The initial $20 million is committed now; the balance is contingent on program progress. This is foundation capital rather than a priced venture round, and it sits beside rather than inside the company’s existing equity syndicate. Announced 27 August. (Link)
  3. TJ Parker, general partner at Matrix, has led a $26 million Series A in Metriport, with participation from ARTIS Ventures and Y Combinator, taking the open-source healthcare data infrastructure company to $28.4 million raised. Matrix led the round through TJ Parker, whose stated rationale is channel evidence: he sees dozens of consumer health companies each year and the strongest ones increasingly build on Metriport. The company was founded in 2022 by former AWS engineer Dima Goncharov and Colin Elsinga. The differentiator investors are underwriting is open-source infrastructure against legacy black-box interoperability tools, accessible via a single API, cloud warehouse connection or native EHR application. Customers include Amazon One Medical, Sollis Health and Color Health. Proceeds fund AI chart summarisation and agentic workflows for care teams. (Link)
  4. Define Ventures has led a $25 million Series B in Arintra, with participation from existing investors Peak XV Partners, Yale New Haven Health Center for Health Care Innovation, Endeavor Health Ventures, Y Combinator, Counterpart Ventures, Ten13 and Spider Capital. Define Ventures led the round, taking Arintra’s total funding to $51 million. The investment case rests on measurable throughput: the platform processes more than $5 billion in annual claim value for health systems representing over $50 billion in combined net patient revenue, and reports a 5.1% increase in compliant revenue capture, 32% cost reduction and 43% fewer coding-related denials. Endeavor Health, an early adopter, backed both the Series A and B. Partner Chirag Shah argued no prior solution had been comprehensive enough to move the bottom line. Proceeds fund enterprise expansion and deeper specialty coverage. (Link)
  5. Wing Venture Capital, Initialized Capital, Sozo Ventures, Hawktail, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Third Kind Venture Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures and SV Angel have backed Outer Bio with roughly $23 million as the Cambridge company exits stealth with its Yuna human-skin platform. What the syndicate is funding is a data asset rather than a clinical one: Yuna keeps full-thickness human skin alive and measurable for four weeks against roughly one week for conventional explants, generating longitudinal multi-omic data that improves the machine learning models over time. The commercial route is consumer skincare first, with partnership revenue already flowing. Founded in 2020 by chief executive Michael Polansky, with Stefani Germanotta on the board. The round size and the syndicate signal investors are underwriting a compounding biological dataset rather than a single product launch. (Link)
  6. Saga Ventures has led $22.5 million in seed and Series A funding for Hike Medical, joined by Indicator Ventures, Fifth Down Capital, RiverPark Ventures, strategic investor Orthofeet, Inc. and angels including Monaco chief executive Sam Blond and Jerod Mayo. Max Altman of Saga Ventures led the financing, and his stated thesis is vertical integration: owning the entire value chain end to end rather than layering software on a broken industry. The market economics justify it, with roughly $100 billion spent annually on orthotics, prosthetics and durable medical equipment and, per the company’s own research, 60 cents of every dollar lost to waste, remakes and fraud. Operating metrics already show remake rates cut from one in 15 to one in 400. Strategic investor and commercial partner Orthofeet participated. Proceeds fund hiring in San Francisco and manufacturing in Peoria, Illinois. (Link)
  7. Costanoa has led a $17 million Series A in Onos Health, joined by Flare Capital Partners and strategic investor CVS Health Ventures, the corporate venture arm of CVS Health Corporation (NYSE: CVS). The strategic money matters commercially: Aetna is already a customer, and the company says it is trusted by three of the six largest US health plans. Costanoa partner Amy Cheetham framed behavioural health as one of the largest and least understood categories in healthcare, with wide cost variation and low correlation to quality. Reported outcomes include a 35% improvement in clinical standard adherence and a 6%-plus cut in behavioural health programme costs within twelve months. Proceeds scale the decision-support tools payers use to manage behavioural benefit design and utilisation. (Link)
  8. Neotribe Ventures, Listen and Village Global have funded a $12 million round for Boston-based Legato, which has emerged from stealth to commercialise AI hearing-assistance glasses. Neotribe founder and managing director Kittu Kolluri framed the investment as a bet against the industry’s design orthodoxy, arguing that decades spent making hearing aids invisible has suppressed adoption and that positioning assistance as a style choice is the route to the market. The defensible asset is intellectual property: four granted patents and more than 20 pending applications. The competitive set is formidable, including EssilorLuxottica’s Nuance Audio and hearing features from Apple and Samsung. Proceeds fund a launch in the coming months and further development. (Link)
  9. August Global Partners has led a $10 million convertible note financing for Shape Memory Medical, joined by fellow new investor Taiwania Capital alongside existing backers HBM Healthcare Investments, Earlybird Venture Capital and WexMed II. The convertible structure defers valuation until clinical readouts land. Partner Davian Sim argued clinicians treating aortic aneurysms and dissections have long relied on repurposed materials, and identified an inflection point as two programmes advance. Proceeds fund follow-up in the AAA-SHAPE pivotal trial, fully enrolled at 180 patients across 48 centres, and the FLAGSHIP feasibility study. Both new investors also support Asia-Pacific expansion. HEAL Venture Lab assisted; the note sits ahead of those readouts rather than pricing the company now. (Link)
  10. Redesign Health has provided $2.25 million in seed funding to OmicsBank, the clinical data infrastructure company founded in 2025 by serial entrepreneurs Sumit Sinha and Vijay Goel.Redesign Health is the sole named backer of this seed round. Head of ventures Neil Patel was explicit about the underwriting order, saying the firm backed the founders first and the market second, citing five companies built between them and the relationship-intensive work of winning hospitals one at a time. The asset being capitalised is a deployed data network: infrastructure inside 90-plus hospitals and laboratories across South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, covering 12.5 million longitudinal records, 30 million DICOM images, six million pathology slides and 500,000 whole-genome sequences. Proceeds fund US and biopharma expansion. (Link)

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Healthcare News, Deals, and Investments Update August 24th, 2026

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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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