A huge thank you to everyone who attended our Ascension Fund III Launch event! It was truly inspiring to be surrounded by such innovative minds and passionate changemakers. 

Special thanks goes to CMS for hosting us and to our exceptional speakers:

➡ Aditi, Vice President of Growth Marketing at Bulbshare

➡ Emily Trant, Chief Impact Officer at Wagestream

➡ Polly Gilbert, CMO at Tembo

➡ Tom Newton, CMO at Believe in Science

➡ Ben Towers, Co-founder and CEO at Happl

Each contributed invaluable insights and compelling stories, highlighting the profound impact that thoughtful leadership and innovation can have across various industries.

HealthKey is our latest investment from the Ascension S/EIS Fund. We are very excited to have backed an innovative business, and we reached out to the founder, David Joerring, to delve into his motivations and the inspiring vision behind HealthKey.

What was your motivation for starting HealthKey? 

“For me the motivation is simply to build something new from the ground up. I have always loved working on new and challenging problems and find great satisfaction in seeing ideas go from being on a whiteboard or napkin and evolving into products that people use. Another large part of the motivation comes from the problem space. Having worked in and around healthcare for a significant part of my career, I had seen how great innovative health products were being built, particularly in preventive and proactive health, and how payers were increasingly interested in paying for such products and services. But payers and providers weren’t collaborating effectively, essentially an ineffective market, and it’s people who lose out, by not getting access to the best possible health products. I’m in love with the idea that, by creating a more effective infrastructure, we could help people live healthier lives.” 

What does success look like for HealthKey? 

"The long term vision is two-fold. Firstly, make it easier for people to access healthcare. It should be at least as easy to get access to health services as it is to buy a new pair of shoes online or any other e-commerce purchase. This particularly involves making the necessary information readily available, and making the payment process for healthcare user-centric. Secondly to work with health payers and providers to power the shift to a more preventive and proactive approach to healthcare. This means being able to prove the ROI of preventive and proactive measures through our integration with both sides. At the moment, it seems that the case for prevention is broadly accepted from a “common sense” perspective, but to really drive action requires more hard data on return on investment.”

Do you have any tips for founders who are raising at the moment? 

"Be super clear and honest with both yourself and investors on how much you need, why you need it, and what milestones that will help you unlock. That means not trying to raise more than needed, and not trying to benchmark your way to what a round should look like or listening too much to advice from people who don’t know the business."

What three things would you take on a desert island? 

1. My wife 

2. A kindle filled with books. I can be happy as long as I have something to read

3. Probably something that would help me get off the island

^{Risk warning: your capital is at risk. Investing in early stage companies involves risks including loss of capital, illiquidity, lack of dividends and dilution. Past performance is not a predictor of future performance. Ascension does not give tax or investment advice. The availability of tax relief depends on individual investors’ circumstances, and on investee companies’ qualifying status, both of which may be subject to change. If you are in doubt about eligibility for tax reliefs or the tax treatment of your investment, you should seek independent tax advice.}