Town Hall Ventures Expands at Critical Moment in the Health of Underserved Communities

• Announces close of new $350M Fund III, firm’s largest to date;
• Meera Mani M.D. PhD joins as first new partner since founding, expert in Medicaid, over a decade advancing health access and equity;
• Investment team expands;
• First measures of impact on underserved communities shows better health and lower costs

New York and Los Angeles

Town Hall Ventures, a health care innovation platform dedicated to transforming care for underserved communities, announced its largest investment fund to date, its first addition to the partnership, and an expanded investment team. The announcements come at a critical moment when disparities in health outcomes, life expectancy, and deaths of despair are becoming a mounting crisis across America.

“Our country has an opportunity to transform the lives of people who have been poorly served by the health care system. We collectively have the know-how to make the world better for a lot of people if we make health care fit the way they live,” said Andy Slavitt, one of Town Hall’s General Partners and former acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “To get there, it will take better policies, bold ideas, talented and passionate people, and sustained commitment. We created Town Hall as a platform to help bring all of these things together for local communities.”

Since its inception, Town Hall Ventures has invested in or partnered to build 30 companies that have grown to serve over 3 million Americans in all 50 states. The firm’s investments include category-defining companies like Cityblock Health, Landmark Health, VillageMD, Equality Health, Unite Us, Signify Health and Eleanor Health. Roughly 20% of Town Hall companies are those where Town Hall participated in the company creation. Empowerment and representation are critical to Town Hall companies. Half of the firm’s portfolio companies are led by women or BIPOC CEOs and co-founders.

Fund III Launches: Town Hall Ventures Crosses $1 Billion in Assets Under Management

Town Hall Ventures launched Fund III this summer, a $350 million vehicle directed at further advancing health care innovation in underserved communities. The fund’s investors include virtually all investors from earlier Town Hall Ventures funds and significant new investors.

“Our job is not just to make great investments,” said David Whelan, General Partner, Town Hall Ventures. “Our purpose is to help build great companies. Enduring and impactful companies that drive measurable improvements in health outcomes, especially for those who have been poorly served by the status quo. With our third fund, we can continue this important work at scale.”

Fund III investors include major institutional investors, family offices, and critical players in the US healthcare ecosystem including leading innovative health systems, provider groups, and health plans with significant customer bases and strategic focus in government programs. Strategic investors are major health care participants in Florida, California, Texas, Illinois, New York, Arizona, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, and Georgia. These states have become hot spots for the development and growth of Town Hall Ventures companies.

“Town Hall Ventures has demonstrated that if you build great, meaningful businesses that change people’s lives you can create significant venture capital returns,” said John Doerr, a Town Hall Ventures investor in all three funds. “As a founding investor of Town Hall, it is great to see the incredible new investors from endowments to institutions to family offices to health care companies behind Town Hall’s mission.”

New Partner Dr. Meera Mani Brings a Decade of Medicaid Expertise

Meera joins Town Hall Ventures from McKinsey & Company where she served as a Senior Partner and built the firm’s Medicaid practice. Meera spent more than a decade working with leading healthcare organizations on strategy and performance transformations. Her work spanned regional and national health insurance companies, health systems, and state and local health-and human-services agencies. This included the design and launch of value-based care programs across three states and the transformation of outpatient access and wait times for a million-patient safety net hospital system.

Meera serves on the Board of the United Hospital Fund, the nation’s oldest federated charity. She holds a Ph.D. in Biophysics and an M.D. from Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

“There are few people in US health care who are as knowledgeable, caring, financially sophisticated, strategic, and with deeper relationships than Meera,” said Trevor Price, a General Partner at Town Hall Ventures. “Her commitment to and passion for investing in health equity will be part of the hallmark of how we are known.”

“Town Hall Ventures has been a pioneer in bringing together entrepreneurs, and public and private sector stakeholders to advance innovations for underserved communities,” said Dr. Meera Mani. “In the first four years, so many Town Hall companies have shown what is possible. With our new fund, we now have a unique opportunity to meet the moment and support diverse innovators effective in serving communities across the country. I am thrilled to join this terrific team and help us grow our impact.”

Town Hall Investment Team Expands

Along with Dr. Mani, three new investment professionals have joined the firm to accelerate Town Hall’s impact in helping underserved communities:

• Matt Tesarfreund joins Town Hall Ventures as a Vice President on the investment team. Previously, Matt led the Finance & Strategy team at Headway as the business scaled to become the largest network of therapists in the country. Prior to Headway, Matt was a Manager at Bain & Company in their healthcare practice, an investor with FFL Partners, a middle-market private equity firm, and a consultant at Mount Sinai, a major health system in New York.
• David Ohta joins the firm as an Associate on the investment team. Prior to Town Hall, David worked on the growth team at Sevita Health, the nation’s largest Home and Community Based Services provider. Before that, David was a consultant at L.E.K. in their healthcare private equity practice.
• Christine Gosioco joins Town Hall as an Associate on the investment team. Prior to Town Hall, Chris worked as a management consultant at Bain & Company, where she primarily spent her time in growth strategy and private equity due diligence. Chris has also served as a business advisor for the women entrepreneurs accelerator at Technoserve, a non-profit.
• Finally, Town Hall has promoted Hui Cheng and Robby Fuentes to Vice President. Both Hui and Robby have played significant roles with Town Hall Ventures companies– identifying new investments, supporting, and helping them deliver transformational outcomes. Hui joined Town Hall from Bain & Company in 2021 and leads Town Hall’s involvement in Plume Health, Eleanor Health, Quilted Health, and Concert Health. Robby, who also joined the firm in 2021 and came from Goldman Sachs, has played a major role in a number of key Town Hall companies including Cityblock Health, Hopscotch Health, and Spark Pediatrics.

Delivering on Measurable Outcomes

Town Hall companies are focused on improving care in communities where outcomes have lagged. Over the first several years, Town Hall companies have begun to demonstrate that transformative outcomes can be delivered in the most challenging circumstances at scale.

• Cityblock Health delivers medical care, behavioral health care, and social services to tens of thousands of Medicaid and dually-eligible lower-income beneficiaries across six states and Washington, D.C. Since launching in 2017, results point to an increase in engagement, meaningful reductions in total cost of care and improved health measures.
• Eleanor Health delivers community-based treatment for mental health and substance use disorders via a whole-person, value-based model to more than 30,000 patients. The company consistently reduces the need for emergency room visits and hospital stays, as well as depression and anxiety levels for its members.
• Unite Us is a national-scale technology company integrating social service and healthcare providers to address non-clinical needs in communities through a network of more than 700,000 community based organizations for over 18 million individuals.

About Town Hall Ventures

Founded by Andy Slavitt, David Whelan, and Trevor Price in 2018, Town Hall Ventures has invested in or participated in the build of 30 companies that improve how care is provided to underserved and under-represented communities. Select portfolio companies include Bright Health Group, Cityblock Health, Curana Health, Eleanor Health, Equality Health, Landmark Health, Signify Health, Somatus, Strive Health, Quilted Health, Unite Us, VillageMD, and Welbe Health. Learn more at www.townhallventures.com.