Nashville-based Jumpstart Health Investors has launched a new fund that will invest exclusively in black-founded health tech companies.

The round brings together nearly 100 investors—including Eli Lilly and Company, HCA Healthcare, Cardinal Health, Meharry School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, American Hospital Association, Bank of America, and Pinnacle Financial Partners—for seed It raised $55 million in a fund called Jumpstart Nova.

The company has made four investments, including a virtual EHR platform for patients with autoimmune diseases, a biotech platform focused on innovation in cell therapy, a behavioral health provider providing technology support for children with autism, and a food Allergy management startup.

Marcus Whitney, co-founder of Jumpstart Health Investors, will serve as managing partner along with Kathryne Cooper, former co-director of the West Coast Pediatric Technology and Innovation Alliance.

The fund has been in operation since August 2020 and raised $10 million in its first few months, according to Whitney. The initial funding goal was to raise $30 million to invest in companies focused on health IT, digital health, technology-enabled services, diagnostic devices, biotechnology, medical devices, and consumer health and wellness. With the additional funding, Whitney hopes to invest in more than 20 black-founded businesses — ranging from $250,000 to $3 million each.

In addition to bringing innovative medical technology solutions to the national market, the fund aims to increase the share of Black-owned companies in the U.S. healthcare industry, which currently accounts for less than 5 percent, according to the release.

Funding for black startups in the U.S. quadruples in 2021, but remains disproportionate to the country’s overall demographic composition. Nearly $1.8 billion was invested in black-owned startups in the first half of this year, accounting for just 1 percent of total U.S. venture capital during the same period, according to data collected by Crunchbase.

Jumpstart is also focused on getting more black leaders and entrepreneurs into the investment network, Whitney said. According to Deloitte, Venture Forward, and the NCVA’s 2020 Venture Capital Human Capital Survey, only 4 percent of all investment professionals are black.

James Hildreth, president and CEO of Meharry Medical College, a strategic investor in the fund, said the disparity is representative of the number of practicing black doctors in the country, and correcting the disparity will require a “bold approach and risk-taking.”

“Jumpstart Nova’s support of Black-founded companies in healthcare is about this innovative thinking,” Hildres said in the release.

The effort began with a 2020 letter from Whitney to Nashville healthcare executives and quickly morphed into an oversubscribed fund with a vast network of healthcare and financial players, he said.

“I have an opportunity to create something that can be traded, as long as it’s an investment,” he said. “It’s not like working on board diversity, which can take five years or more. It’s something that can be done relatively quickly, but it can also be transformative.”