Jiff to Deploy Healthcare Social Network with $7.5 Million Funding


Fremont: Jiff Inc., the developer of the first HIPAA-compliant private healthcare social network and digital health apps platform, completed a $7.5 million Series A financing round. Aeris Capital led the round, with participation from Aberdare Ventures, Jiff's founding seed investor. The funding will be used to deploy its healthcare social network, and to develop a suite of apps that will facilitate health, well-being, care and community. It will also publish a software development kit to allow developers to create applications on the Jiff platform. The company also appointed health care technology veteran Derek Newell as the company's first Chief Executive Officer.

"As consumers and the health care sector grapple with the best uses of social media, digital health applications and mobile devices, Jiff will offer a secure and private digital health platform that is centered on the individual, not any one institution, and it is a technology that can scale to millions of users," says Newell. He brings to the company more than 20 years of experience growing and leading innovative health care technology and services companies. Newell was previously the President and CEO of Robert Bosch Healthcare. While at Bosch, he worked to build Bosch into the world's largest remote patient monitoring company. Prior to that he was the CEO of Health Hero Networks, a U.S. based remote patient monitoring company, and the CMO of a leading disease management company. Newell holds graduate degrees in business and public health from the University of California, Berkeley.

"Jiff has created a healthcare social network and digital health apps platform that has the power to transform how we experience healthcare. It is rare to find a team that is so deep in both consumer Internet technology design and healthcare. They are producing truly innovative products,” says Vince Kim, Partner, Aberdare Ventures.  In conjunction with the financing, Kim of Aberdare Ventures, and George Rehm, J.D., managing partner of Aeris Capital, have joined the company’s board of directors. Jiff co-founder, James Currier now serves as executive chairman.