I am excited to announce the close of our oversubscribed $62 million Fund II, nearly double the size of our $32 million Fund I and surpassing our $50 million target.
Thank you to all of our Limited Partners and portfolio companies for helping to make this happen. And special shout-out to our anchor partner, Texas Oncology, the largest physician-led oncology-focused practice in America.
Highlights from our press release below. Link here. WSJ link here (e-mail for PDF).
“1,700 people die of cancer every day in the U.S.,” said Ben Freeberg, Founder and Managing Partner. “Research shows that more than 1,000 of those deaths could be prevented with earlier detection, guideline-based treatment, and better navigation. Making cancer care more accessible, affordable and easier for patients to understand isn’t something we can wait for.”
Oncology Ventures invests in the picks-and-shovels of a $225 billion oncology market growing at 12% annually, and the #1 cost driver for large employers and commercial health plans.
Oncology Ventures’ limited partner network spans institutions that collectively treat one in three cancer patients in the U.S.
Fund I partners Moffitt Cancer Center, City of Hope, Atlantic Health, Astera Cancer Care, Ohio State University Physicians and Cardinal Health are back for Fund II, and are joined by Texas Oncology, Fred Hutch Cancer Center and other leading institutions.
The impact is already measurable. Portfolio company Risa generated $2 million in annual savings at a single health system. IgniteData saved 70 hours per patient for research coordinators while cutting lab queries by 90%. Tono has supported 15,000+ patients managing cancer treatment side effects. Concr’s platform improved median survival for cancer patients from 1.5 years to 9.7 years.
The Fund’s advisory board includes Dr. Karen Knudsen, CEO of The Parker Institute; Nancy Brown, General Partner of Oak HC/FT; Brad Hively, former CEO of The Oncology Institute; Dr. Lee Newcomer, former CMO of UnitedHealth Group and Emily Melton, Co-Founder of Threshold Ventures.
Comedy!
Let’s talk about Duolingo, the language-learning app. Its mascot is a green cartoon owl named Duo. And Duo… I want to be very clear about this. Duo has lost his mind.
It starts innocently. You download the app. You think, I’m going to learn Spanish. I’m a person who learns things. Why not? I know one language. Two would be double.
And for about three days, you are unstoppable. You are conjugating verbs. You say “Claro que sí” with confidence at dinner. And your friends look at you with what you choose to interpret as admiration.
Then, you miss a day. Just one day. And the next morning you wake up to a notification that says: “You missed your streak. Duo is disappointed.”
Someone built this. A team of people sat in a room and said: “What if our app had feelings? What if our app was disappointed in the user?”
I’m frustrated because it works. I felt bad. I’m on my phone at 11:59PM to do Spanish drills because a cartoon owl expressed disappointment. And I, a grown adult, could not emotionally handle it.
If you are consistent, you add to your streak, which is a number that tells you how many days in a row you’ve used the app. This number has no value. It doesn’t make you fluent faster. It exists solely to make you feel bad when it resets.
And the owl doesn’t quit when your streak ends. Duo will hit you with a “These reminders don’t seem to be working. Let’s try something different.” What are you going to do to me? You’re an app. You have no leverage… And then the text my mother came through “Benjamin. Duo reached out. He’s worried about you.”
Duolingo now teaches chess. So now you can be bad at a language and bad at chess in the same app. That’s real synergy. They have you hooked. Coming soon - Duolingo Healthcare - where you learn how to log into your healthcare system’s new patient portal and send a fax in the year 2026.
Ask (really just an offer for this one)
Are you coming to the COA Conference in Orlando?
If you’re free on Tuesday, April 28 from 7-9PM, we are hosting an event with our portfolio company Daymark and special guest Mark Hertzlich, a Super Bowl champion with the NY Giants and cancer survivor. E-mail me for details.
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