LifeBio Expands Its Fight Against Loneliness With $2.9M NIH Grant | StartUp Health Insights: Week of Oct 7, 2025
StartUp Health community member LifeBio secured a grant from the National Institute on Aging to advance its LifeBio Memory app – an AI-powered reminiscence therapy platform that helps older adults share life stories, strengthen relationships, and improve cognitive health. Other global health innovation funding this week included major rounds across AI, women’s health, and surgical robotics.
Beth Sanders, CEO & Founder of LifeBio
LifeBio, a StartUp Health community member dedicated to improving health by combating loneliness, secured a $2.9 million, three-year Phase IIB Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to expand its in-market HIPAA-compliant LifeBio Memory app. The funding will enable multi-language expansion, new multimedia storytelling tools, and clinical validation of the app’s impact on loneliness, depression, and cognitive decline. <source>
Other reported global health innovation funding this week included:
Periodic Labs, a Menlo Park, CA-based startup proposing to build “AI scientists” and the automated laboratories to match, raised $300M led by a16z, with participation from DST, NVentures (NVIDIA), Accel, Felicis, and other investors. <source>
Heidi Health, a Melbourne, Australia-based company developing AI-enabled medical scribe software for clinical documentation, raised $65M led by Point72 Private Investments, with participation from Headline, Blackbird, and Latitude. <source>
Midi Health, a Menlo Park, CA-based virtual menopause and perimenopause care company, raised $50M led by Advance Venture Partners. <source>
Remedy Robotics, a San Francisco, CA-based company developing remote robotic intervention for stroke and cardiovascular care, raised $35M from TK. <source>
Simple Life, a London, UK-based AI-powered health app that supports weight loss, raised $35M led by Hartbeat Ventures, with participation from Liquidity. <source>
Oath Surgical, a San Francisco, CA-based startup building a surgeon-owned, AI-powered surgical system, raised $24M led by FPV Ventures, with participation from McKesson Ventures, OSE, Black Opal Ventures, Tau Ventures, and Rogue VC. <source>
SureCo, a Santa Ana, CA-based individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement (ICHRA) administrator, raised $23M led by Health Velocity Capital, with participation from Kaiser Permanente Ventures. <source>
Visana Health, a Minneapolis, MN-based virtual-first women’s health clinic providing whole-person medical care for women aged 18-65, raised $24M led by Noro-Moseley Partners, with participation from The Cigna Group Ventures, Intermountain Ventures, Flare Capital Partners, and Frist Cressey Ventures. <source>
Attuned Intelligence, a startup offering a supervised voice AI platform purpose-built for hospital and health system call centers, raised $13M led by Radical Ventures and Threshold Ventures. <source>
Peer AI, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an agentic AI platform for life sciences regulatory documentation, raised $12.1M led by Flare Capital Partners and SignalFire, with participation from Greycroft, Atria, Alumni Ventures, Gaingels, Mana Ventures, and angel investors. <source>
Serenis, a Milan, Italy-based company dedicated to improving access to mental health and wellbeing services, raised $12M led by Angelini Ventures and CDP Venture Capital. <source>
Folia Health, a Boston, MA-based platform transforming lived health experiences into valuable structured data insights to advance research and personalized care, raised $10.5M led by S3 Ventures, with participation from Crosslink Capital and Create Health Ventures. <source>
BeSound, a San Francisco, CA-based developer of a breast imaging platform targeting women with dense breast tissue and those under 40, raised $6.8M co-led by Overwater Ventures, Kindred Ventures, and Muse Capital, with participation from Lux Capital, Wisdom.VC, Retron VC, Mana Ventures, Pave Health Ventures, and SSC Venture Partners. <source>
praxipal, a Berlin, Germany-based startup developing an AI workforce for healthcare front desks, raised $6.7M led by HV Capital, with participation from Nebular, Anamcara Capital, HPI Ventures, and Angel Invest. <source>
Hipp Health, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of an AI-native platform that streamlines administrative work, clinical documentation, and compliance for behavioral health practices, raised $6.2M led by RTP Global, with participation from Swift Ventures, Rackhouse Venture Capital, and Difference Partners. <source>
Kihealth, a St. Augustine, FL-based precision diagnostics company providing early disease detection, raised $5M from undisclosed investors. <source>
DataJoint, a Houston, TX-based provider of a computational database and AI platform, raised $4.9M led by Nina Capital, Inoca Capital Partners, and Capital Factory, with participation from other investors. <source>
QuantHealth, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based developer of AI-driven clinical trial simulation, raised an undisclosed amount from Sanofi Ventures. <source>
Significo, an Austin, TX-based health AI and digital therapeutics company, raised an undisclosed amount led by JSTAR Capital Investments. <source>
Data is from StartUp Health Insights, the most comprehensive funding database for health innovation. Sign up for StartUp Health Insider™ to get funding insights, news, and special updates delivered to your inbox.
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Published: Oct 7, 2025
By Nicole Kinsey
