LAUNCH
Santa Ana’s Cognita Labs is breathing life into the market for respiratory health devices.
Founded in 2013, the upstart recently received FDA approval for its instructional inhaler attachment, called CapMedic. It’s designed to help patients with respiratory illnesses like asthma use their inhaler correctly.
Most patients struggle to use their inhaler correctly—which prevents the medication from reaching their lungs—because it takes six to seven complex steps to do so, according to Chief Executive Gaurav Patel.
“This is a well-known problem, so we realized we needed to create an interactive device to coach patients through the experience,” Patel said.
The CapMedic device, which connects to an app via Bluetooth, uses sensors to detect usage and instruct users with an auditory, verbal and visual interface. The device includes a built-in spirometer to detect biomarkers that measure overall lung health, too.
The company is also pursuing federal clearance for the PulmoScan, a respiratory diagnostic device, among other products. It’s raising a Series A round for commercialization and growth.
Cognita Labs previously received a total of $1.7 million in Small Business Innovation Research grants and endowment funding.
A group of scientists, including Patel, Chief Scientific Officer Rajoshi Biswas and Ashutosh Sabharwal, a professor who maintains an advisory role, spun the company out of Rice University in Houston.
The company later relocated to Orange County to take advantage of the area’s strong medical device scene, Patel said.
PrimaHealth Credit in Newport Beach is expanding its financing offerings from elective care to include addiction treatment centers.
“Addiction treatment centers are underserved in relation to viable financing options to offer their patients,” Chief Executive Brendon Kensel said. “The burden of out-of-pocket costs falls on their patients, who often are unable to start the treatments they urgently need.”
PrimaHealth Credit caters to patients who don’t meet the criteria of medical credit card providers. After running a credit check, the company offers repayment options to its users. Rates depend on the users’ credit.
The company is a licensed lender in Arizona, California, Florida and Texas. Since its inception in 2014, the company has worked with “several hundred practices” and “processed several thousand credit applications,” according to Kensel.
PrimaCredit Health has 11 employees and is currently finishing up a $3 million seed round.
It is one of several local patient financing providers in the area; others include Denefits and PatientFi in Irvine and CareCredit, a medical credit card provider owned by Synchrony Financial and based in Costa Mesa.
PatientFi was profiled in the Jan. 20 print edition of the Business Journal.
PARTNERSHIPS
Costa Mesa-based New Coastal Group Inc. is developing personalized CBD products using Endocanna Health Inc.’s formulation approach, which uses DNA testing to take into consideration individual genotypes or genetic characteristics when prescribing a CBD product.
The proprietary approach is in New Coastal’s consumer line of tinctures and softgel supplements, which treat stress and anxiety, sleep and pain and inflammation. Products range in price from $59.99 to $119.99. The company also sells topicals and suppositories for pain and inflammation.
New Coastal is particularly concerned with the “willy-nilly manner” in which CBD is administered by “mom and pop” shops, according to co-founder and Chief Executive Fred Bloom.
To that end, the company offers a CBD DNA test to help consumers determine the right dosage and delivery method. The test accounts for users’ metabolic rate and other medications taken.
New Coastal products aren’t just for humans. Though there isn’t a DNA test available for furry friends, the company offers CBD products for pets; it recommends starting with a minimal dose when serving its peanut butter and bacon flavored biscuits, freeze-dried meat meals and tinctures to them.
New Coastal launched in late 2019 after raising a $3 million friends and family round. The company sites statistics showing the CBD market will reach $22 billion in sales by 2022.
Newport Beach-based CareCar Inc., an Uber-like transportation service for non-emergency healthcare needs, recently added Medicare benefits provider Brand New Day to its member network.
The company said it has about 100,000 members nationwide, mostly in California and North Carolina.
“As a company operating in the transportation space, we’re committed to removing obstacles to care with specially trained drivers, whom families trust,” CEO Joshua Itano said. “But beyond that, our service improves the communities we serve by providing our dedicated drivers an opportunity to earn more.”
CareCar has a network of CPR and first-aid certified drivers, many of whom are registered nursing assistants. Drivers are paid on a per shift basis, rather than a per trip basis, and earn an average of $21 per hour.
In addition to its ride-sharing services, CareCar offers a technology platform with real-time monitoring, GPS tracking and analytics to ensure patient safety and enhance communication with doctors’ offices.
The U.S. healthcare system loses about $150 billion every year to missed appointments, and about a quarter of missed appointments occur because of transportation issues, according to company officials. Using CareCar, 98% of its members arrive on time. CareCar was founded in 2017. It has about 20 employees and north of 60 trained drivers.
ACQUISITIONS
Laguna Niguel-based ClientLook Ltd., which makes customer relationship management software for the commercial real estate sector, has been acquired by New York’s Lightbox, a private-equity backed firm that’s been rolling up a variety of digital-focused commercial real estate firms.
Terms of the deal were undisclosed.
ClientLook is the second OC-based firm that Lightbox has bought in the past year; last May it acquired Irvine’s Digital Map Products Inc., which provides mapping and location technology offerings.
ClientLook said it is currently working to integrate data, mapping and marketing capabilities into its platform through Lightbox’s portfolio technology.
“The story, the opportunity, the capability was something I’ve never seen before,” Michael Griffin, chief executive of ClientLook said of the deal. “Combining CRM, data, geospatial mapping and marketing … it’s never been done before and it can’t be done outside of LightBox.”
Lightbox was formed in 2018 and is backed by Silicon Valley-based Silver Lake and Battery Ventures in Boston. It has more than 500 employees and about 55,000 clients, most of which are commercial real estate brokers.
Newport Beach-based CBD products firm Kadenwood LLC has bought its agricultural partner Canabanix, which has farming, genetics and greenhouse operations based in Long Beach.
The deal was in the “multimillion” dollar range, according to company officials.
Canabanix joins Kadenwood Biosciences, an existing division of the company that focuses on growing high-yield CBD seeds to extracting THC-free CBD for various manufacturers and its own consumer product goods.
Kadenwood Biosciences has more than 200,000 square feet of greenhouse operations in four states and about 5,500 acres of soil in California and Minnesota.
Kadenwood’s initial product line includes CBD-based performance sports product offerings; its oil drops, sports creams and roll-on formulas range in price from $39.99 to $199.99 depending on formula and CBD concentration.
The company launched a new pet products division last month; CBD-based products for cats and dogs are expected to hit the market in the next couple of months.
Kadenwood began operations in summer 2019 with $10 million in funding, led by Todd Davis, board chairman and the founder and former CEO of LifeLock Inc., now NortonLifeLock.
