Annie Lamont’s Oak HC/FT makes major investments
GREENWICH — Since its founding in 2014, Oak HC/FT has invested in firms in health care and financial technology.
A 2020 defined by the coronavirus pandemic did not undermine that focus; it reinforced it.
In the past year, the Greenwich-based venture capital firm has made a series of major investments, including one in a fast-growing Connecticut’s biotechnology company. Oak is looking to build on that momentum with the recent launch of its $1.4 billion Fund IV, while it continues to see Connecticut as an ideal home base.
“There’s absolutely been a validation of the mission and strategy,” Oak cofounder and managing partner Annie Lamont said in an interview. “The companies we’ve been investing in have grown enormously this year and have been sought after by other investors. We’re excited because the more they grow, the more need they’re satisfying.”
Oak manages about $3.3 billion in assets. The HC/FT is an abbreviation that refers to its focus on early to “growth-stage” companies in health care and financial technology.
It is maintaining that emphasis with the launch of Fund IV. The firm’s investor base includes “strategic investors,” fund-of-funds, corporate and public pension plans, endowments and family offices.
In addition, it runs other active funds. Oak announced this week that it was leading a $100 million funding round in Medicare agency Advise Health Holdings. The commitment comprises investments from its Fund II and Fund III.
“As we think about what we want to accomplish with the new fund and the areas we invest in, health care and fintech are about 50 percent of the economy,” Lamont said.
Among other companies in its portfolio, Oak participated in approximately $120 million in fundraising rounds last year and in 2019 for the Stamford-based health care information firm Sema4.
Last month, Sema4 announced that it would become a publicly traded company and that it had achieved an approximately $2 billion valuation.
“These are the early days of genomic testing, and it’s just going to continue to explode,” Lamont said. “We’re backing a phenomenal team in an area where we see enormous innovation in the future, with a massive market opportunity.”
Sema4 officials praised the support of Oak executives, particularly that of co-founder and managing partner Andrew Adams.
“We appreciate the expert counsel provided by Oak based on their extensive experience of investing in rapidly growing health care and technology companies, said Sema4 founder and CEO Eric Schadt.
Officials at Connecticut Innovations, the state-chartered venture capital organization, another of Sema4’s investors, view Oak’s investment in the company as a crucial endorsement.
“One of the areas we’ve identified as a key need for the state to grow our small companies is we need a thriving venture capital community,” said Connecticut Innovations CEO Matt McCooe. “For that to happen, we need VCs to come and put down roots and expand their firms here in the state.”
Among other investments last year, Oak led a $35 million funding round for
Cerebral, a mental health-focused telemedicine firm. The funding is helping San Francisco-based Cerebral to expand to all 50 states, support its in-network insurance partnerships and build a mobile app.
“With the advent of teletherapy, with everybody going on Zoom, there was behavior change and people feeling comfortable with video conferencing. That has changed the nature of the game,” Lamont said. “Secondly, you could not expect doctors and [other] professionals in the health care industry to regularly take phone calls, do emails and video visits without being reimbursed in the same way.”
Committed to Connecticut
Oak officials see the firm’s Nutmeg State roots as a major advantage.
“We are 30 miles from New York City and now have probably over a dozen investments in companies who are involved with New York. The evolution of entrepreneurialism in New York is fantastic,” Lamont said. “And Greenwich is amazing in terms of talent. And I love the fact that Stamford is really ‘blowing up.’ I think Connecticut is going to be a fantastic mecca of fin-tech companies.”
Lamont’s husband is Gov. Ned Lamont. Oak officials said that since his election in 2018 that they have considered the potential for conflicts of interest and taken steps to avoid such situations.
Sema4 is the sole Connecticut-headquartered company in which Oak has an active investment. The company has received about $16 million in loans from the state Department of Economic and Community Development, but all of those funds were allocated by former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration. Sema4 is not eligible to receive any additional subsidies through its current agreement with DECD.
“Investing in Connecticut is a little problematic for me, so I don’t like to do it that often,” Lamont said. “We always try to be sensitive about the appearance of a conflict of interest.”
McCooe said he is also mindful of the need to avoid any conflicts of interest — which explains why CI has not invested in any of Oak’s funds. Still, he hopes that CI and Oak will invest together in more Connecticut-based companies, as they have done with Sema4.
“We want to invest alongside Oak,” McCooe said. “In the venture capital game, you want to invest alongside other big, global brands who bring a lot of recognition. Connecticut needs strong investors like Oak.”
At the same time, Oak officials remain enthusiastic about their firm’s hometown. Oak is headquartered in the Pickwick Plaza office complex in downtown Greenwich and also maintains offices in Boston and San Francisco. There are 27 people on the Oak team, with 15 of them based in Greenwich.
“With virtualization, people can be anywhere,” Lamont said. “We do feel it’s important that people meet in person. With our team, when life goes back to normal, we’ll certainly want to be in the office and have people in the office one, two, three days a week. I think people need that connectivity.”