Business Insider India has updated its Privacy and Cookie policy. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the better experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we\'ll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on the Business Insider India website. However, you can change your cookie setting at any time by clicking on our Cookie Policy at any time. You can also see our Privacy Policy.
Here are the 10 biggest healthcare startups that have shut down and taken hundreds of millions of investors' money with them
Here are the 10 biggest healthcare startups that have shut down and taken hundreds of millions of investors' money with them
Lydia RamseyMar 20, 2019, 18:31 IST
Advertisement
Reuters
Not every healthcare startup that manages to raise tens or hundreds of millions ends up working out, for one reason or another.
Theranos, Drugstore.com, and sleep-tracker Hello are among the healthcare startups that have closed down in the past five years.
Here are 10 of the biggest healthcare startups that haven't panned out in the past few years, as highlighted by CB Insights.
When Theranos, the beleaguered blood-testing company that's now the subject of a book, documentaries, and a podcast, closed its doors in 2018, it joined a crop of healthcare startups that ultimately didn't live up to investors' lofty expectations.
While none had the spectacular fall from grace that Theranos had, healthcare startups that raised tens of millions or even hundreds of millions from investors in the past five years have ultimately decided to close their doors for one reason or another.
Here are 10 of the biggest healthcare startups that haven't panned out in the past few years, as highlighted by CB Insights.
For home-care company HomeHero, a change in how it could employ its caregivers dealt a deadly blow. In February 2017 HomeHero shut down its home care business and pivoted to a new healthcare venture.
Funds raised: $20 million
Year closed: 2017
Lantern
Lantern, a mental health startup that built tools to help people deal with stress and anxiety, ceased commercial operations in 2018 after six years, after having trouble selling to consumers. The company's software however, lives on in digital health startup Omada Health, which is offering cognitive behavioral therapy to those with depression or anxiety.
Funds raised: $21.5 million
Year closed: 2018
Raze Therapeutics
Raze Therapeutics, founded in 2014, set out to develop a new class of cancer medications. But in 2017, the company decided to call it quits, sending its potential treatments back to academia.
Funds raised: $24 million
Year closed: 2017
Laguna Pharmaceuticals
Often in drug development, a drug won't work the way researchers and the company thought it would when tested in humans. Usually at that point, the company looks for another strategy to keep it afloat, either by advancing another drug or acquiring a new one.
Hello was a San Francisco startup that made a sleep-tracking ball called Sense. Founded in 2012, the company developed a second-generation ball with voice, but shortly after in 2017 decided to shut down. The company did not disclose why.
Funds raised: $40 million
Year closed: 2017
Healthspot
Founded in 2010, Healthspot was a Dublin, Ohio-based startup that operated kiosks where people could video chat with doctors. The company's hardware approach ultimately lost out to the software approaches of companies like Teladoc and American Well, and it closed in 2016.
Funds raised: $45 million
Year closed: 2016
Verdezyne
Founded in 2008, the Califorina-based synthetic biology company was developing renewable chemicals. But the company had to go into bankruptcy after one of its backers withdrew its funding, marking the end of the line for the company. The company had at the time been in the process of building a facility.
Founded in 1996, ReVision Optics made an eye technology to correct presbyopia, or the condition in which you start to lose the ability to see nearby objects as clearly as you age. Presbyopia is a common condition that can be corrected with glasses, contacts, or surgery, but ReVision's CEO told OIS Weekly that the market was "very challenging."
Funds raised: $172 million
Year closed: 2018
Drugstore.com
Drugstore.com had a long run. Since getting its start in 1998, it racked up backing from Amazon and Kleiner Perkins. In 2011, Walgreens acquired the startup in a $429 million deal. But in 2016, Walgreens shut it down. The idea was to put more of a focus on Walgreens.com rather than have a separate brand.
Funds raised: $295 million
Year closed: 2016
Theranos
Theranos, the once darling blood-testing company founded in 2003, had a spectacular fall from grace from 2015 until September 2018 when it shut down for good. The company hadn't hit key development milestones and had to default on its debt financing. The company had faced expensive lawsuits from investors and patients after The Wall Street Journal raised questions about the company's blood-testing technology. Its founder Elizabeth Holmes stepped down as CEO in June, and she and former Theranos president Sunny Balwani face charges of wire fraud.
