One Floridian startup received a very merry holiday present this year: $5 million from Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik.
Bridge Connector, which is based in Palm Beach Gardens and has offices in Nashville and San Francisco, received $5 million from Vinik. He joined Axioma Ventures for a total $25 million fundraising round.
Bridge Connector is a health tech company, focusing on creating a system to connect data systems quickly and cost efficiently. The latest funding will help the company continue to scale and launch its next health data system.
Vinik has previously invested in other health tech companies. In 2017, he was one of several that contributed to a $70 million investment in electroCore, a New Jersey-based biomedical firm. Also in 2017, Vinik invested $6 million into a former Florida-Israel Business Accelerator company StemRad, which focuses on radiation protection. He is also a major partner in DreamIt Ventures, which lists health care as one of its core focuses.
"The last decade in health care has been marked by an explosion of technological advancements and new medical devices that gather an unprecedented amount of patient health data," Vinik said in a statement. "But the ecosystem of available solutions to collect and connect that data has not advanced at the same pace. Solutions like the Bridge Connector platform will prove crucial in improving patient care by allowing us to leverage these data points to unearth and act upon previously unknown insights about our health and well-being.”
