Member Spotlight: 7wire Ventures
For this deep dive, we spoke to Alyssa Jaffee, Partner of 7wire Ventures.
Tell us about your firm. What makes it different?
7wire Ventures is a Chicago-based venture capital firm that specializes in early-stage healthcare technology investments. At the core of our investment philosophy is a long-standing thesis: the rise of the Informed Connected Health Consumer. This thesis reflects our belief that the future of healthcare lies in enabling individuals with the tools, data, and support they need to make smarter decisions, access care more conveniently, and ultimately drive better outcomes at lower costs. The firm is led by seasoned healthcare operators and investors — Glen Tullman, Lee Shapiro, Alyssa Jaffee, and Robert Garber — who bring decades of combined experience in building, investing in, and scaling innovative healthcare businesses.
What differentiates 7wire is its vertically integrated model that combines investment expertise, operating experience, and a deep strategic network. We have a long-standing track record of not only identifying promising digital health companies but also actively helping them scale. This includes board-level support, commercial introductions, recruitment assistance, and strategic guidance. Several of our team members have personally taken companies public, led multi-billion-dollar mergers, and operated at the highest levels within healthcare organizations. One of the most notable examples is 7wire’s early investment and leadership in Livongo, which resulted in an $18.5 billion merger with Teladoc Health — one of the largest digital health exits in history.
Another hallmark of 7wire is our Connected Consumer Health Coalition — a broad network of senior-level relationships across healthcare and technology. The Coalition brings together key stakeholders including payers, health systems, and pharmaceutical companies. These relationships contribute to proprietary deal flow and provide strategic support for our portfolio companies, offering both distribution advantages and real-world insight.
What defines your portfolio?
The 7wire Ventures portfolio is defined by a high-conviction, thesis-driven approach centered on the Informed Connected Health Consumer. Every investment supports our core belief: that the future of healthcare lies in empowering individuals to take greater control over their health. As such, our portfolio is comprised exclusively of digital health companies that improve access, reduce cost, and enhance outcomes across a range of healthcare experiences — from virtual care delivery and chronic condition management to benefits navigation and behavioral health.
These companies are unified by their use of scalable, technology-enabled platforms that move care closer to the consumer. Whether delivered through mobile apps, virtual interfaces, or AI-powered tools, the companies we back offer digital-first solutions that integrate into payer, provider, and employer workflows to improve outcomes and affordability. 7wire maintains a deliberately concentrated portfolio of 10–15 companies per fund, reflecting an extremely selective sourcing process — fewer than 1% of reviewed opportunities are pursued. This disciplined approach enables us to play a collaborative role across each investment, offering board leadership, strategic guidance, executive hiring support, and commercial acceleration.
While each company addresses a different segment of the healthcare ecosystem, all share a consumer-first orientation and the potential to become category-defining platforms. Our investments span virtual and hybrid care models, condition-specific solutions such as oncology and mental health, care navigation tools, and cost transparency offerings. The portfolio includes fast-growing ventures like Transcarent, NOCD, and Payzen. Collectively, it reflects 7wire’s consistent, research-backed strategy to support the next generation of healthcare innovators focused on transforming the system through the lens of the consumer.
Tell us about the current VC landscape in your geography/region.
Chicago and the broader Midwest represent a unique and strategic geography within the venture capital landscape—particularly for healthcare innovation. As one of the largest and most diverse healthcare markets in the United States, the region is home to leading health systems, payers, pharmaceutical companies, life sciences hubs, academic medical centers, and Fortune 500 employers. This rich ecosystem offers 7wire a distinct advantage: close proximity to the very stakeholders our portfolio companies aim to serve.
Our Midwest location also brings a capital-efficient lens and reinforces our value-focused, operator-driven investment strategy. Innovators in this region tend to build with discipline and a deep understanding of healthcare delivery, aligning closely with 7wire’s mission to support companies that empower the Informed Connected Health Consumer.
What are the benefits of being an NVCA member?
Our firm is a proud member of the NVCA with our Partner, Alyssa Jaffee, serving on the Board to help further the goals of our venture capital community. Through NVCA, our team benefits from a broad range of resources, relationships, and advocacy efforts that directly support our mission and investment strategy. NVCA serves as the leading voice of the U.S. venture capital community, offering a powerful platform to shape public policy on issues central to innovation, capital formation, and entrepreneurship. For 7wire, this includes representation on critical topics such as healthcare regulation and tax policy—both of which influence the growth and scalability of early-stage digital health companies.
NVCA also enables peer-to-peer connection and professional development through a strong network of member firms. These forums allow our team to engage with other top investors, contribute to thematic working groups, and stay ahead of emerging venture trends.
Finally, NVCA amplifies our visibility within the broader innovation ecosystem. From speaking opportunities and thought leadership features to participation in industry-wide initiatives, the association helps highlight 7wire’s differentiated thesis and elevate the profile of our portfolio companies. Taken together, NVCA membership strengthens our ability to advocate, collaborate, and lead in building the next generation of consumer-first healthcare companies.
What’s ahead for your firm?
We believe 7wire is entering one of the most important moments in digital health. With rising costs, widespread chronic conditions, and growing demand for better access and equity, healthcare is under pressure to evolve — and digital solutions are increasingly becoming the answer. Stakeholders across the system are accelerating adoption, and the venture market is responding with strong capital flows, exit activity, and strategic consolidation.
Looking ahead, we’re focused on areas where we see both urgent need and outsized opportunity, including aging-in-place, chronic condition management, and AI-driven platforms that deliver personalized, proactive care. We’ll continue to back companies that empower the healthcare consumer — supporting them with capital, operational expertise, and strategic networks to help them scale. True to our thesis, we remain committed to improving outcomes, reducing cost, and transforming the healthcare experience through innovation and consumer empowerment.
