Healthbox lands $7 million for expansion

Healthbox, an accelerator focused on healthcare startups, raised $7 million to expand its operations as more money flows into the medical and insurance industries that are searching for ways to improve care and lower costs.

Investors include Health Care Service Corp., the Chicago-based parent of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Illinois; and Chicago Pacific Founders, a new $500 million private-equity fund headed by former Accretive Health CEO Mary Tolan; and Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare, which runs a hospital network and insurance provider.

Healthbox, which operates accelerator programs in five cities, from Chicago to London, will expand to Salt Lake City. The accelerators are four-month programs for startups. Healthbox says the new investment will allow it to invest in 50 new startups.

The Chicago-based company, which is changing its name to Healthbox Global Partners, also will partner even more closely with hospitals, insurers and startups. It will create a formal conduit program to help startups sell into hospitals or other large healthcare companies. Chicago-based Avia recently launched a similar effort.

Healthbox also is creating a unit called Foundry that will help hospitals and insurers build their own accelerators. Its first customer is Intermountain.

Healthbox will use the new investment to continue hiring at a rapid clip. It's already grown to 20 people from 12 at the beginning of the year, and it expects to reach 35 by the end of 2014, a spokeswoman says.

"Healthbox lands $7 million for expansion" originally appeared in Modern Healthcare's sister publication Crain's Chicago Business.