Bengal Investments has focused on the future of healthcare for over 25 years—across 13 portfolio companies, growing to 4000+ employees. Secondary ventures cross FinTech, services, and commercial real estate, often related to healthcare.
BI provides pre-seed through A-round investments. Its business network incorporates levers for growth. In addition, BI has a hands-on venture accelerator arm called Bengal Health Ventures.
To accelerate returns further, BHV has invested IP in a re-usable AI platform and data intelligence service for patient, provider, and payor scenarios.
Created by BI, BHV is a startup foundry who creates, incubates, and commercializes software products based on artificial intelligence. The group also collaborates with new founders and staffs key executives during incubation.
The expected business outcome is 10X+ shareholder returns. Since 2015, BHV has started, funded, and nurtured 5 companies past product market fit and into scale. The biggest differentiator BI and BHV have is a track record of repeated product wins, which greatly reduce investment risk in the product development and product market fit stage.
The BHV advisory team brings extensive industry knowledge, go to market expertise, and significant software company operating experience. They have worked in PE, VC, startups, scale-ups, and unicorns...analyzing, recommending, and leading change for multiple value levers. Their tremendous "outside in" view of healthcare and wellness will challenge what is possible.
Investment Criteria:
a) Focused on healthcare/wellness
b) Innovates in AI for B2B or B2C
b) Pre-seed and often pre-development
c) Industry credibility exists
d) Experience with AI required
e) Likely not a fit for first-time software founder(s)
BI was founded in 1997 by Darby Brown. Initial startup investments were in companies where Darby played a co-founder and/or management team role.
The foundation of BI was AIM Healthcare. AIM's customer-base included almost every U.S. insurance company and major hospital system. AIM built a technology platform to link payers and providers together around claims data. Co-founders also included Preston Ingram, Jim Sohr, Carl Haley, and Burt Nowers.
AIM Healthcare spun off startups in healthcare technology, services, and EDI. In the first exit (2009), a group of these startup investments were acquired by Optum (formerly Ingenix).
BI has invested in ten more companies.
Three have exited.
All started with pre-seed and follow-on investments from BI.
As of 2023, BHV is re-architecting it's business design and ability to predictively create value at scale.
