Altitude Lab launches coalition of investors

Altitude Lab, a Salt Lake City incubator focused on early-stage life science and healthcare companies, has announced the launch of its Investor Coalition, a partnered network of leading healthcare venture capitalists to fund, mentor and provide resources for Altitude-incubated startups. Together, the Investor Coalition will support a diverse community of founders who are shaping Utah’s rapidly growing healthcare innovation economy and aims to collectively invest $50 million in Altitude’s startups over the next three years, the organization said in a release.

Altitude Lab was founded in 2020 by clinical-stage biotechnology company Recursion and the University of Utah’s PIVOT Center. It focuses on developing diverse and inclusive businesses to innovate lower-cost, higher-quality and more-accessible healthcare solutions.

Founding investors in the Coalition include of Alaa Halawa, Mubadala Capital; Andrea Jackson, Northpond Ventures; Austin Walters, SpringTide Capital; Greg Yap, Menlo Ventures; Jack Boren, Epic Ventures; Katelin Roberts and Dr. Branden Rosenhan, MedMountain Ventures; Keith Marmer, University of Utah Innovation Fund; Michael Schmanske, AngelMD; Nan Li, Obvious Ventures; Nathaniel Horwitz, RA Capital; Nickolas Mark, Intermountain Ventures; Zachary Bogue, DCVC; and Zavain Dar, Lux Capital.

“Lack of access to top-tier investors is a crippling gap for founders in nontraditional geographies or of underrepresented backgrounds,” said Chandana Haque, executive director of Altitude Lab. “Support from experienced investors can completely change the trajectory of a startup. It’s our mission to connect founders from all backgrounds to the capital and resources that will propel them to not only compete but excel in a rapidly changing healthcare landscape.”

To help founders navigate the unique challenges they face when scaling healthcare companies, each participating investor will provide ongoing mentoring and advisory to Altitude Lab founders and participate in quarterly demo and pitch events. Members of the Investor Coalition are varied in specialization to help entrepreneurs build companies across the healthcare spectrum, including therapeutic, diagnostic, research tools and health tech verticals.

“We have backed transformative companies around the world that are reimagining healthcare and drug discovery. From our long-standing work with Recursion, it’s clear that something special is happening in Utah,” said Li, managing director at Obvious Ventures. “We are excited to deepen our involvement in the region and are looking forward to working with visionary companies coming out of Altitude Lab.”