Member Spotlight: Echo Health Ventures

For this deep dive, we spoke to Jessica Zeaske of Echo Health Ventures.

Give us some background on your firm: How did the firm start, what is your mission and how does the firm strive to meet its goals?

Echo Health Ventures was founded in 2016 with a mission centered on driving systemic health care transformation through hands-on, purpose-driven strategic venture capital and growth equity investing. We believe that transformation requires meaningful partnerships between enterprises and innovators, so we created the Echo Innovation Alliance, uniting Cambia Health Solutions, Blue Cross NC, USAble Corporation and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee as members to accelerate health care innovation on a national scale and drive meaningful impact. Echo enables these like-minded health plans to collaborate on forward-looking, transformative products and services to their more than 8 million members.

Tell us about your firm. What makes it different?

Echo Health Ventures invests in building and growing transformative health care companies through a unique, industry-leading corporate investment platform. We believe capital alone isn’t enough, and what sets us apart from other investors is our dual mandate to deliver both financial and strategic value. We partner with forward-thinking health plans through the Echo Innovation Alliance to ensure member needs are understood and then utilize these insights to drive opportunities for health care innovation. Our unique structure enables us to provide resources and hands-on support to our portfolio companies and facilitate connections that make a real difference. It’s our belief that strategic investors, in collaboration with industry stakeholders, are best positioned to drive meaningful, sustainable change in health care.

Tell us about the current VC landscape in your geography/region.

The Blue Cross Blue Shield health plans in the Echo Innovation Alliance cover Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Utah (under Cambia Health Solutions); and Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. This geographic diversity ensures Echo considers a variety of unique perspectives, as we invest based on local needs and understand that adaptability is key when approaching complex health care challenges. Although our offices are located nationwide, our constant collaboration ensures innovation does not become siloed. Findings, best practices and solutions are shared across the Alliance, benefiting plans and members throughout the country.

What defines your portfolio?

Our model is built on the belief that impact is not a solo effort. It’s shared across Echo Health Ventures, our health plan partners in the Echo Innovation Alliance and our portfolio companies. Alliance members share a desire to transform health care and a commitment to collaborating with like-minded industry players to make this goal a reality. They engage deeply with each other in the pursuit and adoption of innovative solutions to some of the most pressing challenges in health care.

What does your firm look for in a partner when choosing to invest in a portfolio company?

Echo invests in companies that demonstrate a commitment to catalyzing health care transformation. We’re stage-agnostic, meaning it doesn’t matter where the company is on its journey. Whether they’re in the early stage or mature and established, we’re interested in bold, energized, innovative companies determined to solve complex challenges with originality.

What does the firm value? What do you especially value in a portfolio company’s team?

We’re laser-focused on impact – aligning private investment with measurable health care industry improvement – and we seek to invest in portfolio companies aligned with this approach. We include impact as part of our Investment Memos and evaluate impact using performance metrics and observational data. In a 2024 public report, we reported on Echo’s work betweenthree portfolio companies, Aledade, DispatchHealth, and Strive Health, and two Alliance members, Blue Cross NC and Cambia Health Solutions. We assessed how these portfolio companies grew and positively impacted affordability and quality and outcomes for our Alliance members. For instance, with Aledade, we focused on achievement of shared savings for both the plan and achievement of accountable care organization (ACO)quality metrics for Commercial and Medicare Advantage members.

How does Echo Health support its portfolio companies? How does it help entrepreneurs grow and advance the VC industry?

Echo Health Ventures encourages and fosters connections amongst its portfolio companies, facilitating conversions, sparking ideas and connecting talented individuals. Our portfolio companies appreciate the fluidity and interconnectedness of this ecosystem because it introduces them to fellow leaders who are looking to transform health care, exposes them to new capabilities that can help advance their goals and allows them to see where they are within this complex industry. We also serve as trusted advisors to our portfolio companies, as they appreciate the market intelligence, deep knowledge and unique perspective that is shaped by our access to some of the most innovative companies in health care.

What are the benefits of being an NVCA member?

Much like the connections we encourage within our own network, NVCA offers us the opportunity to form relationships and meaningfully interact with our industry peers on the forefront of innovation. The organization’s professional development opportunities are valuable touchpoints, helping us to keep our finger on the pulse of the VC industry.

What’s ahead for your firm?

In 2024, we launched Echo Health Ventures’ Impact program, which focuses on aligning private investment with measurable improvements in health and health care (an essential and increasingly important part of evaluating investment ROI). Working alongside our Alliance members and portfolio companies, we identified four goals at the center of our Impact initiative: affordability, quality and outcomes, experience and access, and growth and competitiveness.

We facilitated forums between the Echo Innovation Alliance and portfolio company leaders to candidly discuss impact from a payer partnership perspective.

In 2025, Echo Health Ventures released its first annual Impact report, highlighting progress in embedding impact assessments into the diligence stage of investment and strengthening partnerships between portfolio companies and the Alliance. As Echo continues to work with its portfolio companies and Alliance members, Impact will remain a core focus and priority for the firm.