Jasper Health, a cancer care platform startup, has laid off a substantial portion of its workforce, JS has learned. Engineering and product design were among the departments affected by the cuts, according to LinkedIn posts from affected employees.
JS could not independently verify the exact number of people who were cut, but an industry source with knowledge of the affected people believes it was about half of Jasper Health's small team. Jasper Health had about 48 employees before the cuts, according to PitchBook data.
The company's co-founder and CEO Adam Pellegrini did not respond to JS's request for comment. JS's attempts to reach Jasper Health's Chief Operating Officer, Chief Growth Officer and Head of Marketing via email were unsuccessful and the messages were returned.
Just over two years ago, in February 2022, Jasper Health raised a $25 million Series A led by General Catalyst, with participation from Human Capital, W Health Ventures, Redesign Health and 7wireVentures. At the time, the company said it would collect a total amount of $31 million in the field of venture capital.
Most importantly, Jasper is a General Catalyst portfolio company. The VC firm is one of the most active investors in healthcare. It's so serious about bringing new, startup-led technology into the U.S. healthcare system that the VC firm bought an Ohio-based healthcare system called Suma Health earlier this year, an unprecedented move in venture capital. But that clearly doesn't mean that all GC-backed healthcare startups will flourish without setbacks.
Jasper is also notable because it was conceived and launched in 2018 by Redesign Health, a venture capital firm and studio that creates new healthcare companies. Redesign is run by CEO Brett Shaheen (formerly at Lone Pine Capital and Carlyle Group) and says it has built 50 healthcare startups that have collectively raised $1.3 billion. Redesign, which is itself backed by LPs such as General Catalyst, CVS Health Ventures and Samsung Next, also had its own layoffs earlier this year, Fierce Healthcare reports this.
Jasper's digital yet human-led platform provides care navigation, patient support and remote patient monitoring. The company also offers psychosocial care. It says that about 12% of users are in remission from cancer.
Pelligrini, the company's founder, started his career as a surgical specialist in the US Army. He also helped build the American Cancer Society's website, which provides information to patients and health care providers about the disease. Before founding Jasper, he was senior vice president of virtual care and consumer health innovation at CVS Health.
Jasper Health's competitors include Thyme Care and Reimagine Care.
