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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Healthcare Investing, AI Enablement, and Scaling Category Leaders with Saurabh Bhansali of Health Velocity Capital
00:09:26
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- [00:00]
A
Hello and welcome to a special combined episode of the Becker's Healthcare and the Becker Private Equity and Becker Business Podcast. My name is Chanel Bunger and I'm delighted to speak with Saurabh Bansali, a partner at Health Velocity Capital, who joins the podcast today to share insights into healthcare investing and a bit more. Sohrab, thank you so much for joining me.
- [00:20]
B
Thanks Chanel. Thanks for having me.
- [00:22]
A
Perfect. Well, to get us started, can you introduce yourself and share how your approach to healthcare investing has evolved over the years?
- [00:29]
B
Yeah, absolutely. So I'm one of the partners and co founders here at Health Velocity Capital. I am based out of our San Francisco office. We also have a national Tennessee office. We're approaching our 10th year anniversary and we'll be imminently deploying our third fund next year in 2026. Since Health Velocity Capital is founded, our guiding principles have remained fairly consistent. We're investing in businesses that are making the future of healthcare more affordable, sustainable and consumer friendly. Our team has a pretty unique combination of 100 plus years of investing and operating experience, having backed or built many of the first movers in our sector to either market leadership or market formation altogether changing the way how care is delivered, paid for, administered. We've backed a number of category leaders including Teladoc, IVX Health, livongo, Maryland, Live Change, Healthcare, Ginger, Headspace, Ennoblecare, even Castlight Health. And you asked about our approach, so our approach we think really sets us apart. First, we focus on fundamentals that really determine durability for businesses. You know, this means customer incentives and understanding economics, sales velocity and capital intensity. So we can really understand how early advantage for these businesses becomes repeatable scale. Second, one of our unique approaches is that we uniquely engage our network to produce real outcomes and that is in the form of customers, partnerships, talent and ultimately a faster path to scale. You know, our LPs include many of the nation's largest and most influential healthcare organizations, plus about a hundred over 100 senior healthcare executives, both current and former, that collectively represent organizations that Ensure Something like 175 million Americans operate over a thousand hospitals with national pharmacy, PBM and healthcare IT reaches. And from that we've generated over 2 billion in partnership revenue across 200 plus commercial relationships. So we like to say is network is common, but commercial pull through is rare and we work really hard and take a lot of pride in driving that commercial pull through.
- [03:03]
A
Thank you so much, that's very impressive. And now thinking about right now and kind of going into 2026, what would you say Are the emerging trends or friction points in health care that you think investors tend to overlook?
- [03:19]
B
You know, what I've learned over the past 15 years in this sector is that health care is just, it's just too complex for the casual participant. And this is an industry that doesn't really do well with hype. So to really making a lasting improvement with their capital, investors need to understand the industry over cycles and really connect the dots on how dollars flowing through the system drive incentives, bring those decisions and dollar flows in the system, as well as the operational friction that really slows that innovation. So just going back to sort of our engagement model of our network, we have this really consistent and constant feedback loop from those who really shape the market. So in theory and in practice, you know, our proximity gives us a bit of an unfair advantage. We can spot what's broken before the market does because we hear it directly from the operators that are feeling the pain. You know, one of our investments is a business called IVX Health, which was an investment that was born from our network. It was an introduced, it was an introduction from one of our strategic network investors and individual and, and we made the investment, we recruited the CEO, the chairman, the CFO and a variety of other executives. And they have really done a remarkable job turning that into a billion dollar platform, redefining the infusion experience. So that's a little bit about our approach. Some of the trends that we're seeing, the friction points that we encounter, you know, on top of that, we're obviously seeing a lot in AI and that's going to encounter a big opportunity and a number of friction points as well.
- [05:07]
A
Got it, got it. And we all know that healthcare innovation has been at a rapid pace lately. What would you say the most exciting bit of healthcare or area of healthcare innovation has been for you in the past six to 18 months? And could you give us any particular companies that embody these approaches?
- [05:25]
B
Yeah, of course. So today my through line has really been backing companies that can participate in that large dollar flow market that I mentioned before and those that can disproportionately benefit from market or regulatory tailwinds, just given how broken so much of healthcare is. And there are a number of companies that I've backed that really sit in those dollar flows. Octavis, participating in, you know, in the mental health space, broadly speaking, and providing high quality care to those needing it. From a mental health therapy standpoint, Torch Dental is effectively building the Amazon of the dental industry, making it better, faster, cheaper for dentists to procure their Materials and consumables, you know, that's all these companies really sit in the big dollar flows. And when healthcare becomes more efficient on top of that. More recently I've been drawn to areas like revenue cycle management, AI enabled services, specialty pharmacy and drug management, next generation health plans for small and mid sized businesses because those are all areas that have been part of the broader healthcare ecosystem for decades. And AI enablement is really driving more efficiency, operational leverage and ultimately great sustainable businesses. You know, we recently invested in a company called SureCo, which is a business in the defined contribution space within health care There there is an act passed by the Trump administration called Ichra, the individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement. And SureCo is an administrator, an ICHRA administrator where they help small to mid size employers offer defined contribution plans versus defined benefit. It's kind of the, the move historically that we've made from pensions to 401ks, but it's happening in healthcare or health insurance. And when we were looking at that space, nearly every carrier we engaged had a dedicated point person and an emerging ICHRA strategy. And the folks that we talked to, the consultants consistently described ICHRA as a key tool in their arsenal. So you know, it's just going back to that Flywheel with our LPs and our network where we can see opportunities and where we can really help drive adoption.
- [07:47]
A
Got it, got it. And now you've given us a lot of actionable insights for healthcare leaders and for business leaders looking for insights into healthcare investing. But I'm curious, what do you personally look for in founders or teams that consistently deliver meaningful impact?
- [08:01]
B
It's a great question. If I were to point to one characteristic that I personally admire in founders that has led to, I'd say outsized returns. It's this concept of resourcefulness. It's, you know, resourcefulness is core to both who we are at Health Velocity and the founders we back. The best founders turn turbulence into tailwind. You know, one of our portfolio companies, Octave, is a great example of when resourcefulness meets the right founder. You know, we invested pre Covid when the world changed. The CEO sort of reimagined the business basically overnight. Pivoted from virtual clinics to, I should say physical clinics to a virtual first model integrating with both payers and EMRs and even exploring how AI can power more efficient navigation in the business has really been accelerated as a result of that resourcefulness from the founder.
- [09:01]
A
Absolutely. Well, Saurabh, I want to thank you for your time today, but before I let you go, is there anything else that listeners should know.
- [09:07]
B
If you are a a growth stage resourceful founder, you know who to reach out to perfect.
- [09:14]
A
Well Saurabh, I want to thank you once again for your time today and for sharing your insights on the Becker's Health Care and the Becker Private Equity and Business podcast. Thank you so much.
- [09:22]
B
Wonderful. Thanks Chanel.