Hello all,
As I step into the role of leading Johnson & Johnson Impact Ventures (JJIV), an investment fund within the Johnson & Johnson Foundation, as the new Global Director, I wanted to share a few brief thoughts.
First, I’m very appreciative of Alice Lin Fabiano, who previously led JJIV, and the others who built the foundation of the fund and our team. While I’m looking forward to the growth and expansion of the portfolio, I know that would not be possible without those previous efforts.
Second, I am genuinely excited about the future of our work and the potential for impact investing in healthcare, despite the current economic challenges. There are many reasons to be hopeful with new companies developing innovative solutions to global health equity issues, as well as more broadly for catalyzing increased investment in this space.
And third, I am humbled by the opportunity and responsibility we have to support amazing impact entrepreneurs with the vision and passion to improve healthcare for patients all around the world. So with that in mind, we are focusing this newsletter on the various ways we provide that support, in addition to our core investments.
While direct investment continues to be our core focus, we are also committed to building a more sustainable and diverse healthcare ecosystem to elevate mission-aligned entrepreneurs at earlier stages of growth and development. Here are some of the most recent ways we are empowering health equity ventures:
- Accelerators: We work with partner organizations to help health startups in the pre-seed funding phase. Recently, we partnered with Village Capital, an early-stage impact investment fund, on a new accelerator program, which is providing services and funding to 10 startups that are designed to reduce health disparities for people of color in the United States
- Competitions: We fund pitch competitions and other prizes designed for social impact startups. In September, we funded a prize awarded to five health startups selected from the participants of two of MIT Solve’s Challenges focused on addressing healthcare and access barriers.
- Fellowships and Training programs: We help health impact entrepreneurs grow into effective changemakers through professional and technical training. Our work with Aspen Institute Fellowships provides innovators with the resources they need to develop their platforms and become stronger advocates for culturally competent care. Additionally, we recently invested in Echoing Green’s Racial Equity Philanthropic Fund, which provides health equity leaders with unrestricted seed funding to increase their impact.
- Early Stage Seed Fund: As part of Johnson & Johnson’s Our Race to Health Equity commitment, we supported Acumen America’s early-stage health equity-focused fund. Our grant provided the necessary capital to REEMA and Clinify Health to help them expand their capabilities and increase their impact.
- Strengthening the Ecosystem: We provide funding for critical research and knowledge-sharing initiatives working to make the pipeline of healthcare innovators more diverse. We worked with Rock Health on a report published in September on catalyzing the impact of underrepresented digital health entrepreneurs. We also helped fund the development of IRIS+, an investment tool from the Global Impact Investing Network, so investors can identify and support enterprises combating racial health disparities.
All of these different ecosystem components can be critical to support impact entrepreneurs at early stages, as they work toward a vision where good health is within reach of everyone, everywhere. At JJIV, we are continuing to explore how we can uniquely contribute to that ecosystem and partner with organizations helping entrepreneurs grow and succeed.
Best,
Dana Deardorff, Global Director
Johnson & Johnson Impact Ventures
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