VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 04, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- B.C. based Relentless Venture Fund (“Relentless”) today announced Canada’s largest community credit union, Vancity as its founding institutional investor.
The Relentless mission is to invest in technology based businesses that contribute to active, healthy living at all ages. “We are pioneering a new approach to health care investing with our commitment to an individual’s entire lifecycle. By targeting preventative and proactive health strategies, we have found deep values alignment with investors from the social impact community,” highlighted Brenda Irwin, General Partner of Relentless and Co-Founder of Relentless Pursuit Partners . “Vancity’s early support has been an important catalyst for our recently launched health tech venture fund.”
The need to invest in strategies that facilitate a lifetime of vibrant health and activity has become urgent with our aging demographic; Canadian seniors outnumber children for the first time in history, according to the 2016 Canadian census. 1
Patient centric, proactive health management options are needed to reduce the development and progression of chronic disease. Relentless is the first Canadian fund to intentionally target the massive need of our aging population. Novel digital health technologies, a greater focus on positive health outcomes and the rise of the empowered citizen are key enablers of the preventative care market. 2
Vancity has a long history of advocating and supporting pioneering women – going back as early as the 1960s when it began lending to women without a male co-signer. With its commitment to the Relentless Venture Fund, Vancity joins the growing ranks of investors creating gender balance at the leadership level in the Canadian venture capital ecosystem.
Relentless’ first investment announced in May was Vancouver founded Canary Medical Inc. Canary, a medical data company dedicated to improving healthcare outcomes by using proprietary, smart medical devices, secured US$26M from an international syndicate. Canary is a prime example of disruptive health technology that is putting the patient at the centre of its product development. Of note, all three institutional health funds that invested in Canary were represented by female partners.
With more than a decade of experience investing in Canadian healthcare, Irwin elaborated on the fund’s core objective, “our goal is to shift the paradigm in healthcare from reactive to proactive; to enable healthy individuals to stay active for a lifetime; to help people living with chronic illness live a better life; to influence a cultural uptake of prevention strategies. A shift in the care model will be transformational for individuals and communities.”
About Relentless Venture Fund The Relentless Venture Fund (“RVF”) is a health technology venture capital fund dedicated to investing in preventative and proactive technology solutions that optimize health, activity and longevity. Relentless is an early stage investor, investing in seed and Series A investments. The RVF portfolio pursues a quadruple aim: empowering patients to manage their own health, reduction of healthcare costs, enabling better health outcomes, and improving the clinician experience. As a technology and mission based fund, Relentless is committed to the development of technologies, products and services that both enhance and promote an individual’s ability to stay optimally healthy and active over an entire lifetime.
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1 http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement...mp;geo2=01
2 https://www.marsdd.com/news-and-insights/tran...tive-care/
For more information about Relentless contact Brenda Irwin at
