WaveOn Health, an Albuquerque startup developing a digital athlete health management system, wants to find investors among athletes and other professional sportspeople as it looks to raise more development capital.
A "special purpose vehicle," or SPV, is a way for multiple investors to come together to invest in a single company. WaveOn Health's own SPV, launched in early June, targets investors involved with professional sports, including current and former athletes, as well as physical therapists and people working in athletic medicine.
The startup wants to raise $475,000 through the investment vehicle, with a minimum investment of $20,000. It's part of WaveOn Health's pre-seed round of financing, which the startup opened in early January this year to propel its product to market.
Adam Halpern, the founder and CEO of WaveOn, said partnering with athletes for this investment can help the startup access new customers in sports medicine and professional sports. Its health management system aims to give athletes and non-athletes access to professional health services.
"Having conversations around what WaveOn Health does, what service we provide, I've experienced that if someone has lived it, they get it," Halpern said. "If someone hasn't lived it, it just doesn't make sense because they compare us to the traditional health care system."
One early partner in WaveOn's SPV is Jamie Moyer, a former MLB pitcher who played for 25 years across a handful of teams. Halpern said he's talked with Moyer about connecting with other sports health professionals and athletes in the past pitcher's network.
"He really understands the value because once he retired, he completely lost access to everything he received through that professional sports medicine team," Halpern said about his startup's partnership with Moyer.
WaveOn also works with sports organizations, including a pair of ultimate Frisbee teams, and athletic trainers to expand its user base. Halpern said the startup is training five "athlete health agents" to work with its users.
David Novosad, chief operating officer for WaveOn, said the startup nearly tripled its user count in the last 30 days, going from around a dozen to just under three dozen. New partnerships through the special purpose vehicle and sports organizations could see that number grow closer to 100 by the end of July, Novosad said.
He added that access to the startup's platform is subscription-based, and WaveOn recently landed a partnership with a California-based technology services company to build out a mobile application available for download on Apple's app store and the Google Play store. Seven people work with the startup; Halpern said the money obtained through the pre-seed financing will go toward making some of those part-time independent contractors full-time employees.
Once WaveOn closes its pre-seed financing round, it wants to launch a seed round that Novosad could open early next year. The startup wants to bring in $3.3 million total through its pre-seed and seed financing rounds.
