Digitalis Ventures

Digitalis Ventures is a New York-based healthcare specialist that has built one of the more idiosyncratic franchises in the category by spanning human health, animal health, and health-adjacent infrastructure under a single ‘health only’ umbrella. The firm runs a multi-strategy platform that includes a venture fund, a non-profit technology platform, and a research arm, and it operates in close partnership with public-sector initiatives including ARPA-H. Digitalis’s investment team has explicit expertise across biotech, digital health, AI, and deep tech, and the active portfolio of more than 50 companies covers oncology, immunology, gene therapy, diagnostics, digital health, animal health, and functional nutrition.

A distinctive piece of the franchise is the Companion Fund, a multi-hundred-million-dollar platform that Digitalis built in partnership with Mars to invest in animal health, an area most generalist healthcare investors avoid. That cross-species approach has made Digitalis a natural home for translational founders whose science applies across human and veterinary medicine, and it gives the firm an unusual perspective on platform investing. On the AI side, the firm has backed Onc.AI, which received a breakthrough designation for its imaging AI evaluated against clinical trial data and presented at AACR 2025; Galatea Bio, which is mapping the genetic diversity of 10 million people to enable pharma drug development for underrepresented populations; and Elemental Machines, an industrial IoT platform for life sciences laboratories that raised a $41 million Series B with Digitalis as a co-investor. Senior team members include managing partners and partners with backgrounds across biotech operating roles, computational biology, and traditional venture, and the team is collaborative rather than star-driven.

Check sizes in venture run from $2 million at seed up to $20 million at Series B, with the capacity to lead at Series A and frequently to co-lead at seed. Digitalis is comfortable participating in syndicates alongside specialist therapeutics investors and crossover funds, and its long-duration capital structure gives it patience for company-building timelines that can stretch a decade or more. Geographic scope is global with a US and UK center of gravity and selective deals across continental Europe, Israel, and Asia.

Founders who should approach Digitalis include scientific founders with platform-bio theses, AI-native diagnostics and therapeutics builders, and operators in animal health and functional nutrition who would otherwise struggle to find specialist capital. The firm is also a credible partner for digital health infrastructure plays that touch life sciences laboratories, clinical research, and pharma operations. Founders building pure software for clinical workflows without a scientific or platform wedge should aim instead at Oak HC/FT, Define Ventures, or Optum Ventures. Founders building consumer wellness brands without clinical evidence should look elsewhere entirely.

Entry path runs best through scientific advisors who collaborate with Digitalis on its non-profit and ARPA-H work, through portfolio company CEOs, and through warm introductions from peer life sciences investors. The firm is active at BIO, JPMorgan Healthcare, and the AACR and ASCO research circuits. Cold inbound to a named partner with a clear technical thesis can land but should be paired with a credible referral if possible. Diligence is rigorous on the science and includes external review by the firm’s research and technology partners; expect four to eight weeks for novel platforms.

The pitch should lead with the science, the platform thesis, and the data. Digitalis partners are technical and want to see why your asset, your model, or your platform yields a defensible advantage rather than an incremental improvement. They will also want to understand your regulatory and translational plan in detail and will probe your IP estate and your manufacturing or scale-out strategy. The firm’s added value is most powerful when founders take advantage of the full platform: the non-profit research access, the ARPA-H and government relationships, the Companion Fund’s animal health adjacencies, and the Mars-backed network for nutrition and consumer health. Founders who think of Digitalis as a single check are leaving real value on the table; founders who treat it as a multi-year strategic partner often find the relationship compounds across rounds and across companies.