Houston health tech company raises $7.85M series A led by local VC

green for growth

Houston-based Kare Technologies has raised fresh funds to spur its national expansion. Image courtesy of Kare

A Houston-based health tech company has scored fresh funds from a Houston venture group to fuel its growth and to expand nationally.

KARE Technologies, a digital labor marketplace for health care workers, raised a $7.85 million series A investment round led by Houston-based Golden Section Ventures.

"The KARE team are well known in senior care and the caring industry at large," says Dougal Cameron, general partner at GSV, in a news release. "They are experts in their field and know this problem well. Their care for the industry and knowledge in the space clearly shows in the company's rapid adoption. They are providing a needed solution to an extremely important industry for our society."

The digital platform offers senior facilities and qualified caregivers a platform to post and accept work for hire. The company's founder Charles Turner had the idea for the technology after seeing hospitals struggle to get care workers during the 2017 hurricanes. Again, with the rise of COVID-19, that need for health care staff became even more apparent.

"The biggest issue we're facing — and this is even a non-COVID world — is staffing," Turner previously told InnovationMap. According to the release, 82 percent of caring communities that face chronic staffing challenges.

The growing company will use the funds to support its growth and national expansion.

"It feels good when you build something that the marketplace loves and helps alleviate a major crisis that so many of our operator customers are dealing with," says Turner, who serves as KARE's CEO, in the release. "We are eternally grateful that GSV has understood our vision from our very first day and has been such a committed partner to help fuel our growth."

Golden Section Ventures supports early-stage software startups with B2B applications. The VC fund recently launched its venture studio concept.

"We partner with founders who have built creative solutions that solve real customer pain points. Charles Turner, Bridget Kaselak and their team are great examples of this," says Adam Day, general partner at GSV, says in the release. "They lived the customer problem then pioneered a set of solutions that help their clients address the chronic and widespread issue of labor shortages in the caring industry."

This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Jim Havelka of InformAI, Christa Westheimer of New Stack Ventures, and Charles Turner of Kare Technologies. Courtesy photos

3 Houston innovators to know this week

who's who

Editor's note: In the week's roundup of Houston innovators to know, I'm introducing you to three innovators recently making headlines — from health tech founders to a venture capital rising star.

Jim Havelka, founder and CEO of InformAI

Jim Havelka, founder and CEO of InformAI, joins the Houston Innovators Podcast to discuss the difference his technology can make on the health care industry. Photo courtesy of InformAI

InformAI is providing solutions for data optimizations in health care — something that'll allow for better diagnoses and treatment. Jim Havelka shares on the Houston Innovators Podcast last week that his company's success is due to being headquartered in Houston and tied to the Texas Medical Center. The company's team works out of JLABS @ TMC as well as TMC Innovation Institute.

"Those relationships have been very helpful in getting data to build these particular products," Havelka says. "Just the Texas Medical Center alone has roughly 10 million patient encounters every year. The ability to get access to data and, equally important, the medical experts has been a tremendous benefit to InformAI." Click here to read more and stream the podcast.

Christa Westheimer, venture fellow at New Stack Ventures

Need an in with a venture capital firm? This Houstonian has an idea. Photo courtesy

As a venture fellow, Christa Westheimer — who's a student at Rice University — works hard to find startups working on the next great thing. And she realizes there are so many Houston startups seeking funding, so she has some advice: get in touch.

"During my tenure as a venture fellow, I have been sifting through online resources — from Crunchbase and AngelList to LinkedIn — with the hopes of finding a really neat startup that would earn an investment from New Stack Ventures," she writes in a guest column for InnovationMap. Click here to read more.

Charles Turner, founder of Kare Technologies

Charles Turner founded Kare Technologies on the heels of a crisis — and the pandemic has accelerated the company's growth. Photo courtesy of Kare

Charles Turner saw an inefficiency in senior health care staffing — even before the industry was rocked by a pandemic. He founded Kare Technologies to use software to address this problem. In light of COVID-19, the need for better staffing solutions grew across industries and Kare expanded its features to reach hotel and restaurant workers.

"We'd always plan on doing this, and with the advent of COVID we accelerate our development on the hospitality side," Turner says. Click here to read more.

Houston-based Kare Technologies optimizes staffing for caregivers, and COVID-19 has allowed them to grow faster than they expected. Image courtesy of Kare

Houston-based senior care startup accelerates gameplan amid pandemic

startup that kares

Houston-based acute care startup Kare Technologies has yet to waste a good crisis.

The company, which offers senior facilities and qualified caregivers a platform to post and accept work for hire, was born out of founder Charles Turner's experience in Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma in 2017.

Turner first entered the senior care industry as a facilities developer and watched in 2017 as staff in Houston and Florida struggled through the storms.

"In both of those situations, my buildings were fine but my employees were [flooded in] and they couldn't get to work. We had to rely on the staff — especially in Harvey — that was in the building when the hurricane hit. We had to rely on them for four days straight and they didn't sleep for four days," Turner says. " We were by ourselves."

In 2019, Turner launched Kare as a way for facilities to work through everyday staffing challenges and natural disasters alike. The platform matches senior-care facilities with vetted and credentialed staff who are eager to pick up extra shifts in the industry with growing demand.

"The biggest issue we're facing — and this is even a non-COVID world — is staffing," Turner says about his industry.

Charles Turner founded Kare Technologies on the heels of a crisis — and the pandemic has accelerated the company's growth. Photo courtesy of Kare

According to Turner, many frontline workers (which include certified nursing assistants, certified medication aides, licensed vocational nurses, licensed professional nurses, and the likes) are required to take on a second job to make ends meet. However, those jobs are often not in the senior-care field.

"They are very missional, they do love caring for seniors," he says of senior caregivers. "And so there's tension. 'I can stay in working senior care, or I can make $5 more an hour working at Amazon or something like that.' But they don't love that."

Too, the platform allows facilities to pay a fee for using the marketplace, instead of paying an expensive staffing agency that takes a cut from every placement or hire.

Amid the pandemic, the company expanded its features to reach hotel and restaurant workers.

"We'd always plan on doing this, and with the advent of COVID we accelerate our development on the hospitality side," Turner says.

Thanks to Houston-based Golden Section Financial's $1 million in-kind software services grant program, Kare was able to onboard a new team of senior developers to add the features and functionality that would allow recently laid off or furloughed hospitality workers to put their skills to use. Just as caregivers could use the platform to find jobs that fit their skill sets, these workers could find work they were qualified for as cooks, receptionists, waiters, and housekeepers at senior facilities.

The grant also allowed the company to add important features to the platform to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in hard-hit senior care facilities. These features would limit the number of buildings workers could bounce around from and encouraged workers to stay within a smaller network.

Currently the Kare is being used by several thousand workers and hundreds of senior care facilities, Turner says. He anticipates that the platform will be available in all major U.S. cities by the end of the year, and will be exploring international opportunities by 2022.

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Baylor center receives $10M NIH grant to continue rare disease research

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Baylor College of Medicine’s Center for Precision Medicine Models received a $10 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health last month that will allow it to continue its work studying rare genetic diseases.

The Center for Precision Medicine Models creates customized cell, fly and mouse models that mimic specific genetic variations found in patients, helping scientists to better understand how genetic changes cause disease and explore potential treatments.

The center was originally funded by an NIH grant, and its models have contributed to the discovery of several new rare disease genes and new symptoms caused by known disease genes. It hosts an online portal that allows physicians, families and advocacy groups to nominate genetic variants or rare diseases that need further investigation or new treatments.

Since its founding in 2020, it has received 156 disease/variant nominations, accepted 63 for modeling and produced more than 200 precision models, according to Baylor.

The center plans to use the latest round of funding to bring together more experts in rare disease research, animal modeling and bioinformatics, and to expand its focus and model more complex diseases.

Dr. Jason Heaney, associate professor in the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics at BCM, serves as the lead principal investigator of the center.

“The Department of Molecular and Human Genetics is uniquely equipped to bring together the diverse expertise needed to connect clinical human genetics, animal research and advanced bioinformatics tools,” Heaney added in the release. “This integration allows us to drive personalized medicine forward using precision animal models and to turn those discoveries into better care for patients.”

Houston institutions launch Project Metis to position region as global leader in brain health

brain trust

Leaders in Houston's health care and innovation sectors have joined the Center for Houston’s Future to launch an initiative that aims to make the Greater Houston Area "the global leader of brain health."

The multi-year Project Metis, named after the Greek goddess of wisdom and deep thought, will be led by the newly formed Rice Brain Institute, The University of Texas Medical Branch's Moody Brain Health Institute and Memorial Hermann’s comprehensive neurology care department. The initiative comes on the heels of Texas voters overwhelmingly approving a ballot measure to launch the $3 billion, state-funded Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (DPRIT).

According to organizers, initial plans for Project Metis include:

  • Creating working teams focused on brain health across all life stages, science and medical advances, and innovation and commercialization
  • Developing a regional Brain Health Index to track progress and equity
  • Implanting pilot projects in areas such as clinical care, education and workplace wellness
  • Sharing Houston’s progress and learnings at major international forums, including Davos and the UN General Assembly

The initiative will be chaired by:

  • Founding Chair: Dr. Jochen Reiser, President of UTMB and CEO of the UTMB Health System
  • Project Chair: Amy Dittmar, Howard R. Hughes Provost and Executive Vice President of Rice University
  • Project Chair: Dr. David L. Callender, President and CEO of Memorial Hermann Health System

The leaders will work with David Gow, Center for Houston’s Future president and CEO. Gow is the founder and chairman of Gow Media, InnovationMap's parent company.

“Now is exactly the right time for Project Metis and the Houston-Galveston Region is exactly the right place,” Gow said in a news release. “Texas voters, by approving the state-funded Dementia Prevention Institute, have shown a strong commitment to brain health, as scientific advances continue daily. The initiative aims to harness the Houston’s regions unique strengths: its concentration of leading medical and academic institutions, a vibrant innovation ecosystem, and a history of entrepreneurial leadership in health and life sciences.”

Lime Rock Resources, BP and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center served as early steering members for Project Metis. HKS, Houston Methodist and the American Psychiatric Association Foundation have also supported the project.

An estimated 460,000 Texans are living with dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Association, and more than one million caregivers support them.

“Through our work, we see both the immense human toll of brain-related illness and the tremendous potential of early intervention, coordinated care and long-term prevention," Callender added in the release. "That’s why this bold new initiative matters so much."

Texas launches cryptocurrency reserve with $5 million Bitcoin purchase

Money Talks

Texas has launched its new cryptocurrency reserve with a $5 million purchase of Bitcoin as the state continues to embrace the volatile and controversial digital currency.

The Texas Comptroller’s Office confirmed the purchase was made last month as a “placeholder investment” while the office works to contract with a cryptocurrency bank to manage its portfolio.

The purchase is one of the first of its kind by a state government, made during a year where the price of Bitcoin has exploded amid the embrace of the digital currency by President Donald Trump’s administration and the rapid expansion of crypto mines in Texas.

“The Texas Legislature passed a bold mandate to create the nation’s first Strategic Bitcoin Reserve,” acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock wrote in a statement. “Our goal for implementation is simple: build a secure reserve that strengthens the state’s balance sheet. Texas is leading the way once again, and we’re proud to do it.”

The purchase represents half of the $10 million the Legislature appropriated for the strategic reserve during this year’s legislative session, but just a sliver of the state’s $338 billion budget.

However, the purchase is still significant, making Texas the first state to fund a strategic cryptocurrency reserve. Arizona and New Hampshire have also passed laws to create similar strategic funds but have not yet purchased cryptocurrency.

Wisconsin and Michigan made pension fund investments in cryptocurrency last year.

The Comptroller’s office purchased the Bitcoin the morning of Nov. 20 when the price of a single bitcoin was $91,336, according to the Comptroller’s office. As of Friday afternoon, Bitcoin was worth slightly less than the price Texas paid, trading for $89,406.

University of Houston energy economist Ed Hirs questioned the state’s investment, pointing to Bitcoin’s volatility. That makes it a bad investment of taxpayer dollars when compared to more common investments in the stock and bond markets, he said.

“The ordinary mix [in investing] is one that goes away from volatility,” Hirs said. “The goal is to not lose to the market. Once the public decides this really has no intrinsic value, then it will be over, and taxpayers will be left holding the bag.”

The price of Bitcoin is down significantly from an all-time high of $126,080 in early October.

Lee Bratcher, president of the Texas Blockchain Council, argued the state is making a good investment because the price of Bitcoin has trended upward ever since it first launched in early 2009.

“It’s only a 16-year-old asset, so the volatility, both in the up and down direction, will smooth out over time,” Bratcher said. “We still want it to retain some of those volatility characteristics because that’s how we could see those upward moves that will benefit the state’s finances in the future.”

Bratcher said the timing of the state’s investment was shrewd because he believes it is unlikely to be valued this low again.

The investment comes at a time that the crypto industry has found a home in Texas.

Rural counties have become magnets for crypto mines ever since China banned crypto mining in 2021 and Gov. Greg Abbott declared “Texas is open for crypto business” in a post on social media.

The state is home to at least 27 Bitcoin facilities, according to the Texas Blockchain Council, making it the world’s top crypto mining spot. The two largest crypto mining facilities in the world call Texas home.

The industry has also come under criticism as it expands.

Critics point to the industry’s significant energy usage, with crypto mines in the state consuming 2,717 megawatts of power in 2023, according to the comptroller’s office. That is enough electricity to power roughly 680,000 homes.

Crypto mines use large amounts of electricity to run computers that run constantly to produce cryptocurrencies, which are decentralized digital currencies used as alternatives to government-backed traditional currencies.

A 2023 study by energy research and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie commissioned by The New York Times found that Texans’ electric bills had risen nearly 5%, or $1.8 billion per year, due to the increase in demand on the state power grid created by crypto mines.

Residents living near crypto mines have also complained that the amount of job creation promised by the facilities has not materialized and the noise of their operation is a nuisance.

“Texas should be reinvesting Texan’s tax money in things that truly bolster the economy long term, living wage, access to quality healthcare, world class public schools,” said state Sen. Molly Cook, D-Houston, who voted against the creation of the strategic fund. “Instead it feels like they’re almost gambling our money on something that is known to be really volatile and has not shown to be a tide that raises all boats.”

State Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, who authored the bill that created the fund, said at the time it passed that it will allow Texas to “lead and compete in the digital economy.”

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This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

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