Kansas City-based Cobalt Ventures LLC invested $5 million in a Boston company offering virtual opioid addiction treatment.
Cobalt Ventures, a venture capital arm of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, made its investment as part of a $50 million Series B round by Bicycle Health, according to a release. The new round bring’s Bicycle Health’s total funding to-date to $83 million.
Bicycle Health offers online appointments and prescriptions of Suboxone, a medication commonly used to treat people with opioid addictions. The medication binds to the receptors in the brain activated by opioids, thus reducing the high from and cravings for illegal drugs while helping blunt withdrawal symptoms.
Cobalt Ventures, which specializes in investments in health-related startups, ranks No. 4 on the Kansas City Business Journal’s list of area venture capital and private equity firms, based on $250 million in capital under management locally.
Among the local companies Cobalt Ventures has invested in are Bardavon Health Innovations, an Overland Park-based company that focuses on improving treatment of musculoskeletal problems, and Overland Park-based Rx Savings Solutions.
Rx Savings Solutions, which provides transparency in prescription drug costs to consumers, employers and health plans, recently announced a deal to sell to McKesson Corp. for as much as $875 million.
