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Healthcare News, Deals, and Investments update August 24th, 2026. Spenser Lin August 24, 2026 No Comments Healthcare Weekly News and Deals Venture Deals and Other * 8VC and Town Hall Ventures have led a $53 million Series D in Hopscotch Primary Care. 8VC and Town Hall Ventures led the round, with existing investors aMoon Fund, Citi Impact Fund, Alumni Ventures and K2 HealthVentures participating and new investors including the Autism Impact Fund, Kleiner Perkins chairman John Doerr, Heritage Provider Network founder Dr. Richard Merkin and the Leon Levine Foundation. Founded in 2021, Hopscotch serves more than 15,000 patients across the rural Southeast, concentrated in western North Carolina. Investors have hard numbers to point at: a Net Promoter Score of 89, patient retention above 90%, medical loss ratio improvement of more than 25 percentage points over two years and profitable operations in western North Carolina. (Link) * Section 32, Thiel Bio, Founders Fund, Breyer Capital, Blue Venture Fund and JSL Health Capital have funded Network Bio's $50 million launch alongside an NVIDIA partnership. Network Bio, a Palo Alto company building AI models trained on human biological data, launched on August 19 with $50 million from investors including Section 32, Thiel Bio, Founders Fund, Breyer Capital, Blue Venture Fund and JSL Health Capital. The money funds a research network with Mass General Brigham, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Colorado Anschutz, supplying tissue and blood samples paired with longitudinal clinical outcomes across immunology, metabolic, cardiovascular and autoimmune disease. Investors are paying for exclusive data access rather than a clinical asset. The launch came with an NVIDIA partnership to scale the models. (Link) * InnovaHealth Partners led Channel Medsystems' Series C to $30 million, backing the commercial expansion of the Cerene endometrial cryotherapy platform. The Berkeley medical technology company has reached $30 million in an ongoing Series C led by InnovaHealth Partners. InnovaHealth has backed Channel Medsystems since 2021. Proceeds fund commercial organization expansion, physician and patient awareness, professional education and training, clinical evidence generation and market development infrastructure. The raise follows a commercial relaunch of the platform. Founder and Managing Partner Mortimer Berkowitz III pointed to unmet need in women's health backed by clinical evidence and an experienced leadership team. (Link) * MaxQ Medical raises $31.5 million Series A backed by Olympus MaxQ Medical has closed a $31.5 million Series A led by Atlantic Blue Ventures, S3 Ventures and Olympus Innovation Ventures, with participation from Hillside Capital. The financing advances the company's transurethral imaging-and-therapy platform for prostate disease, the first spinout from Orchard Ultrasound Innovation. The system combines real-time imaging with tissue-selective therapy in a single outpatient procedure, initially targeting BPH with planned expansion into focal therapy for prostate cancer. Proceeds support clinical program advancement and team expansion. (Link) * Leal Therapeutics announces $30 million Series A extension Leal Therapeutics has completed a $30 million second close of its Series A, adding Eli Lilly as a new investor alongside existing backers OrbiMed, Newpath Partners, Euclidean Capital, SV Health Investors' Dementia Discovery Fund and others. Proceeds will advance LTX-001, a first-in-class brain-penetrant oral GLS1 inhibitor, through initial readout of its newly initiated Phase 1b/2a trial in schizophrenia, and progress LTX-002 through additional dosing cohorts in an ongoing Phase 1/2 ALS study. (Link) * Werewolf Therapeutics and Ambros Therapeutics announce merger and concurrent $150 million private placement Werewolf Therapeutics (Nasdaq: HOWL) and Ambros Therapeutics have entered an all-stock merger agreement accompanied by an oversubscribed $150 million private placement co-led by RA Capital and Janus Henderson. The combined company, to operate as Ambros Therapeutics and trade as AMBX, will advance neridronate in the pivotal CRPS-RISE Phase 3 trial for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Type 1. Capital is expected to fund operations through Phase 3 topline results, planned NDA submission and into the first half of 2029. (Link) * Gossamer Bio announces up to $250 million structured private placement Gossamer Bio has arranged a structured private placement of up to $250 million, including $150 million of committed capital, to fund development of seralutinib through potential FDA approval. The financing extends runway for late-stage clinical and regulatory activities surrounding the company's lead pulmonary arterial hypertension program. (Link) * Biotechnology investor Bob Nelsen has led a $20 million round in Astromech, joined by Peak 6, NeoGenesis Capital, Builders VC and CAZ Investments, lifting the Colossal Biosciences spinout to a $3.8 billion valuation. The round was led by Bob Nelsen with participation from Peak 6, NeoGenesis Capital, Builders VC and CAZ Investments, bringing total capital raised to $60 million. The valuation is unusual relative to check size, and what investors are buying is founder pedigree and a data position rather than near-term revenue. Astromech was co-founded by Ben Lamm and geneticist George Church, spun out of Colossal Biosciences, and uses 3.8 billion years of evolutionary history as a primary training signal. Longevity is the proving ground, with 46 longevity-associated genes mapped so far. (Link)

Hopscotch Primary Care, a technology-enabled primary care provider serving rural communities, has raised $53 million in Series D funding. Lead investors include 8VC and Townhall Ventures, with participation from existing backers and new investors including the Autism Impact Fund, John Doerr, Dr Richard Merkin, and the Leon Levine Foundation. Founded in 2021, Hopscotch serves over 15,000 patients across 12 locations in the southeastern United States, with its largest concentration in rural Western North Carolina. The company will use the funding to expand access across the region, enter new rural markets, and scale its technology operations. Hopscotch reports a Net Promoter Score of 89, patient retention above 90%, and profitable operations in Western North Carolina. The company offers same-day visits and 24/7 access to care teams.