Nurse Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in nurse-led enterprises providing innovative solutions in healthcare, announced today the close of its inaugural $1M Fund. The Nurse Founders Fund will invest in Late Seed and Series A rounds of startups founded and led by Registered Nurses (RNs) who are launching innovative products and services that improve patient health and wellness, safety and treatment approaches.
“With all the money being raised for healthcare ventures, bright, talented nurses with great business ideas still struggle to get the resources they need to launch their businesses,” said Marla J. Weston, PhD, RN who with partner Beth A. Brooks, PhD, RN co-founded Nurse Capital in 2022 to “disrupt the nursing care ecosystem, impact healthcare delivery, and empower nurse entrepreneurs to transform their ideas into reality.”
The Nurse Founders Fund will make investments in startups that are producing promising new healthcare devices and equipment; technology platforms that improve the management of patient treatment programs and protocols; enterprise software solutions; patient education; and health and well-being products and services.
Weston and Brooks, both of whom hold doctorates in nursing science, have more than 50 years of combined experience in executive leadership roles in healthcare administration, academia, and business consulting and executive coaching. Most recently, Brooks spent nearly six years as President of Resurrection University, a health sciences and nursing university in Chicago before launching her own strategic business consultancy for health-tech startups. Weston served for nine years as Chief Executive Officer of the American Nurses Association and then opened her own consulting practice to serve as a strategic advisor to numerous healthcare startups, government agencies and non-profit associations.
The partners launched Nurse Capital to fill a funding gap they witnessed for startups founded and led by nurses.
“We see more nurse founders bootstrapping, crowdsourcing and winning pitch contests, yet when their idea is mature enough and ready for Late Seed and Series A funding, there’s no one in that space,” noted Nurse Capital Co-founder Brooks. That’s where the Nurse Founders Fund will focus its investments.
“We’re also breaking down stereotypes about nurses,” Brooks added, “that nurses don’t have the skills to innovate and run a business, and they lack the financial wherewithal to be investors.”
Both assumptions are outdated, the partners insist. “Nurses have a frontline view of where the healthcare system is working or not working for patients, at the bedside,” said Brooks. “The very work of professional nursing is outlining the issues and potential solutions. So who better than nurses to bring new solutions to the market?”
As for the ability of nurses to raise a successful venture fund, Weston and Brooks have assembled a carefully curated group of limited partners, all of whom are RNs with extensive senior executive leadership and operator experience in hospital staffing, patient care, safety and quality, and legal and finance operations.
“Our Fund offers both the financial resources and the expertise of our team of investors to support these entrepreneurs with professional guidance and introductions to market leaders, potential customers and other investors,” said Weston.
Nurse Capital will invest strictly in businesses where the top leader (Founder/CEO) must be an RN. The Fund does not have a specific gender focus though 90% of all nurses are women, the partners note. Considering that female-only led startups receive less than 2% of venture capital investments—a figure that has not budged for years—Weston and Brooks have joined a growing ecosystem of women-led venture capital funds that are accelerating more VC investments in scalable, tech-empowered startups founded and led by women and underrepresented founders.
“Our Fund exemplifies nurses’ having what it takes to be successful, on both sides of the table,” said Brooks. “We have the money to invest and we have the know-how to run businesses.”
About Nurse Capital
Nurse Capital is a women-founded and managed venture capital fund based in Chicago that makes early-stage investments in nurse entrepreneurs leading high-growth-potential businesses that are transforming the future of healthcare.
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To submit a pitch deck, contact Nurse Capital
Beth A Brooks, PhD, RN, FACHE
Co-Founder and General Partner
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Nurse Fellow Alumnus, 2012-2015 Cohort