- Lynne Chou O’Keefe’s Define Ventures announced it has set up an $87 million oversubscribed debut fund called Define VC
In October 2018, Lynne Chou O’Keefe set up a venture capital firm called Define Ventures. And Define Ventures recently set up a debut fund with $87 million in capital commitments — which is called Define VC.
Prior to launching Define Ventures, O’Keefe started out her career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs. From there, O’Keefe worked at Apax Partners and received an MBA from Harvard Business School. After her MBA, O’Keefe worked at Guidant and Abbott Vascular. Following 6 years of work experience at Abbott Vascular, O’Keefe became a partner of the Life Sciences Group at Kleiner Perkins.
According to TechCrunch, the original target for the fund was $65 million. But it appears that there was a lot more interest than expected due to the investors she got to know as a former board member of Livongo. Plus founders are also excited about Define Ventures especially since it is primarily focused on digital health. It is rare to find a venture capital firm that is sector-focused.
Define Ventures has already made several investments. Some of the firm’s investments include HIMS (men’s wellness and personal care brand), Tia (women’s health clinic brand), Verana Health (clinical data company), Unite Us (care coordination company), and Lightship (direct-to-patient clinical trial company).
Chirag Shah, principal at Define Ventures, previously worked as the Vice President of Commercial Strategy at Imagine Health. And he also worked as a senior manager of strategy analytics at Castlight Health.
Define Ventures will be investing in about 15-20 companies per year with a check range of about $750,000 to $6 million.
