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📌 What is Girls Into VC up to?

⚕️ From our team:

VC and startups span countless industries, but this week we are diving into one that hits close to home for many of us: healthcare. Several girls on our team have found their niche in this space, whether through personal family experiences, their academic focus, or simply their everyday interests. In my own family, I often hear the saying, “Money can’t buy health.” As future founders and investors, though, we can help shape a better future, one driven by cutting-edge medical technology, smarter pharmaceuticals, and innovations that improve quality of life for the people around us.

🪟 Industry Overview: 

For investors, healthcare offers both the excitement of backing cutting-edge innovation and the challenge of navigating regulatory pathways, reimbursement hurdles, and long development timelines. Unlike many industries, it carries a unique dual bottom line: generating returns while improving and in some cases, saving lives.

Right now, the sector is in a dynamic state. U.S. healthcare VC fundraising has slowed, yet the surge in AI innovation is keeping digital health strong, with over $12 billion invested globally in H1 2025. AI-driven companies now make up nearly one-third of all healthcare deals, signaling where much of the industry’s energy and capital is flowing.

🩺 Healthtech fund highlight: aMoon Fund

aMoon is Israel’s largest healthtech and life sciences venture capital fund, managing over $1.3 billion in assets. Founded in 2016, the firm invests across all stages, from early startups to growth companies, in biotech, medical devices, and digital health, with offices in Israel and the United States. Their portfolio includes innovators like Ultima Genomics, a cutting-edge genomics sequencing platform, and Mammoth Biosciences, a disruptive diagnostics company , reflecting the fund’s mission to accelerate breakthrough solutions that transform patient care worldwide.

Our team was fortunate enough to sit down for a conversation with Yael Gruenbaum-Cohen, DMD, PhD, a Partner at aMoon who plays a central role in identifying and supporting groundbreaking healthcare companies.

Yael brings over 15 years of experience in healthcare investing and rare disease commercialization, having previously served as General Manager of Medison Ventures, where she led licensing deals, strategic collaborations, and Series A+ investments in orphan drugs and genetic disorders. Earlier in her career, she headed medical affairs for Medison Pharma’s Rare Disease division and co-founded both Andlit Therapeutics and WE@HealthTech, a mentorship initiative promoting female leadership in Israel’s healthtech ecosystem. Yael earned her DMD and PhD in molecular genetics from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Weizmann Institute.

Q: What initially interested you in the VC space?
 Yael: It was a long transition, but at its core, it was about taking transformative technologies and finding their real-world impact. How do you bring science into healthcare in a way that changes lives? My scientific training taught me to be analytical, which translates directly into evaluating technologies and their potential. Ultimately, it’s a passion for giving patients and children a life they might not have otherwise had.

Q: What made you feel this was the right time to make the switch in your career?
 Yael: It was a mix of personal insights and industry timing. I entered VC during the era of genetic medicine, about 15 years ago. I also saw so many brilliant ideas stall because of a lack of strategic support and funding innovations that should have been translated from the university to the real world but weren’t. That gap was exciting to me.

Q: What aspects do you enjoy most in the VC space?
 Yael: I love working with scientists and entrepreneurs. That collaboration energizes me. My second favorite aspect is strategic problem-solving sitting on a board, identifying bottlenecks, and helping companies navigate through them. Every investment presents a unique puzzle, which lets me make an impact while also learning something new.

Q: Are there specific traits that signify a successful founder?
 Yael: Absolutely. Three stand out: resilience, adaptability, and persistence. Setbacks are inevitable whether from the science, the market, or both. The best founders keep moving forward, no matter the obstacles.

Q: Do you feel an initial click with those founders?
 Yael: Yes, often. It’s the spark you sense right away passion, charisma, clarity of purpose. If there’s a shared mission and you see their drive, it creates an immediate connection.

Q: Do you have a personal investment thesis?
 Yael: I do, and it’s shared by many. I look for the intersection of deep tech and biotech, combined with a commitment to impact and diversity. Of course, it must be science-driven, and the quality of the founders is paramount.

Q: What advice would you give young women interested in VC or starting their own company?
 Yael: Own your expertise. Leverage your unique perspective and background. If your strength is science, build skills in other areas, but know and showcase your strengths. Be humble, but speak up no one knows how smart you are until you share your ideas. Confidence grows through practice, so keep putting yourself out there.

🌟 Deal Highlight: Alba Health Raises $2.5M Seed Round

Alba Health, a Swedish-Danish startup co-founded by CEO Eleonora Cavani and microbiome scientist Professor Willem M. de Vos, has raised $2.5 million in a seed round led by Unconventional Ventures, with participation from Exceptional Ventures, Voima Ventures, Noaber, Bust, and Oura co-founder Petteri Lahtela.

Inspired by Cavani’s own recovery from chronic health issues, Alba combines at-home microbiome testing, AI-powered insights, and one-on-one nutrition coaching to help families address common childhood issues like eczema, colic, and constipation and to promote long-term health from the earliest years of life.

The investment thesis is clear: gut health in early childhood shapes lifelong wellness, yet most parents lack access to science-based, actionable guidance. Alba’s platform bridges that gap, backed by deep research and a scalable, digital-first model. 

Read More Here

📚️ Recommendations: What to Read, Listen, Watch

📰 Articles:

• “Why venture capital is the future of women’s health” – Forbes

• “A healthcare venture capital report: 2025” – Rocket Digital Health

🎧️ Podcasts:

• The Readout Loud - STAT’s weekly biotech podcast, breaking down the latest news, digging deep into industry goings-on, and giving you a preview of the week to come.

📖 Books:

• Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking - Malcolm Gladwell shows how quick, intuitive decisions can be as powerful and reliable as deliberate, rational ones.

💗 See you next week

Healthcare is a space where purpose and profit meet in the most tangible way. This week’s spotlight from aMoon’s global healthtech investments to Alba Health’s mission shows how venture capital can fund solutions that touch real lives. Whether you see yourself building companies, backing founders, or joining teams at the forefront of change, remember that every deal in this sector has the potential to rewrite someone’s health story. Here’s to investing in a future where breakthroughs are not only celebrated, but shared.