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External Investments at Hopelab

Health Equity
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Hopelab
August 13, 2020

Investing in and partnering with entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and innovators to improve health outcomes for young people

Hopelab is a social innovation lab committed to supporting and improving the health and happiness of teens and young adults. We work with young people to co-create interventions grounded in behavioral science and human-centered design, conduct rigorous testing, and distribute these solutions in collaboration with partners.  

Our external investments initiative will allow us to invest in and partner with entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and innovators who are similarly committed to improving the health and well-being of teens and young adults. This capability will allow us the flexibility to support both for-profit and nonprofit teams dedicated to scaling social impact.

Woman writing in a notebook with teens

Looking Beyond the Lab

The health challenges facing today’s young people are multidimensional, intersectional, and broad. Social change at scale simply can’t be accomplished by a single person, organization, or institution.

We believe that the evolving field of digital health has made and will continue to make accessible and cost-effective interventions available at unprecedented speeds. We are committed to maintaining rigorous standards for our digital health interventions, building solutions that bring together the speed and nimbleness of the best innovators with the empirical testing of leading researchers.

We believe that we can amplify our impact by investing our resources in mission-driven organizations that are committed to improving the health and well-being of teens and young adults. This expansion into impact investing will provide synergistic opportunities to both learn from other entrepreneurs and incorporate our knowledge and expertise into their products and services.

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We are committed to maintaining rigorous standards for our digital health interventions, building solutions that bring together the speed and nimbleness of the best innovators with the empirical testing of leading researchers.

Our Approach

We will invest in organizations that aim to improve the health and well-being of young people. We are particularly interested in making investments where Hopelab can add value by leveraging the expertise of our social innovation lab, which is staffed by researchers, strategists, and designers with unparalleled expertise in developing products that young people will find meaningful and want to use, can be widely distributed, and will measurably improve health outcomes.

We will further support our portfolio by tapping into our extensive knowledge of and relationships with payers, providers, other entrepreneurs, other investment funds, and subject matter experts where helpful. We will be not only financial partners, but strategic partners, bringing all possible resources to bear to ensure the success of our portfolio companies—and maximize social impact as a result.

Our hybrid structure allows us to invest in both for-profit and nonprofit entities. Our initial areas of focus are:

  • Improving mental health and well-being of teens and young adults
  • Improving health of LGBTQ+ teens and young adults
  • Improving health of underserved, low-income, and/or BIPOC teens and young adults

In an effort to prioritize investments where we have deep expertise and can add maximum value, we will focus on digital health and healthcare services. We will not invest in biotech or pharmaceuticals, nor will we invest in medical devices that require Class II or Class III FDA approval.

Get in Touch

If your organization is aligned with one of our three focus areas, we’d love to hear what you’re working on!

Please email us at externalinvestments@hopelab.org with a brief description of the business concept, the market need, the backgrounds of the founders and management, and how the organization will improve the health and well-being of young people. If you have a non-confidential pitch deck at this point, please include that as well.

Your information will be kept confidential, and you will be informed within four to six weeks as to whether Hopelab is interested in further exploring a potential investment.

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