I got to interview V Bento the CEO of Sword Health. We had been in a little back and forth on Linkedin but this was the first time we actually had talked. Almost all of their business is in the US in MSK but they have recently added mental health and V is not shy in talking about the other areas they are heading into. They have had some controversial moments. They just raised money at an amount ($4 Bn) higher than larger rival MSK health outfit Hinge Health is trading at on the public market. Then I used it a year ago via Blue Shield of CA, and found it effective but expensive. Finally, there’s a lawsuit from the folks at Aging 2.0 who claim that they are owed equity from an accelerator Sword was part of in the 2010s.
V talked about all of these, specifically about how they are now charging their clients, and why he thinks they are worth their valuation–which apparently has no special terms for general Catalyst which invested at that valuation. He wouldn’t talk about the lawsuit other than to say he was happy with his position. But we had a good discussion and got to hear about their new tech, including their use of AI, and why V is so bullish on the company moving beyond MSK. Matthew Holt
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