Cancer treatment platform startup Jasper Health has laid off a significant portion of its workforce, TechCrunch has learned. Departments affected by the cuts include engineering and product design, according to LinkedIn posts from affected employees.
TechCrunch was unable to independently verify the exact number of cuts, but industry sources with knowledge of those affected believe the cuts amount to about half of Jasper Health's small team. Prior to the cuts, Jasper Health had about 48 employees, according to PitchBook data.
The company's co-founder and CEO, Adam Pellegrini, did not respond to TechCrunch's request for comment. Attempts by TechCrunch to reach Jasper Health's chief operating officer, chief growth officer and chief marketing officer via email were unsuccessful and messages were returned.
A little over two years ago, in February 2022, Jasper Health raised $25 million in Series A funding led by General Catalyst with participation from Human Capital, W Health Ventures, Redesign Health and 7wire Ventures. At the time, the company said it had raised $31 million in total from venture capital.
Most importantly, Jasper is a portfolio company of General Catalyst. The venture capital firm is one of the most active healthcare investors. The firm is very serious about introducing new startup-driven technologies to the US healthcare system, and earlier this year, in an unprecedented move for a venture capital firm, it acquired Ohio-based healthcare system Summa Health. But obviously, this doesn't mean that all GC-backed health tech startups will grow steadily without setbacks.
Jasper is also notable for being conceived and launched in 2018 by Redesign Health, a venture firm and studio that creates new healthcare companies. Run by CEO Brett Shaheen (formerly of Lone Pine Capital and The Carlyle Group), Redesign says it has launched 50 healthcare startups and raised a total of $1.3 billion. Redesign, which is backed by LPs including General Catalyst, CVS Health Ventures and Samsung Next, also made layoffs earlier this year, Fierce Healthcare reported.
Jasper's digital, yet human-driven, platform offers care navigation, patient support and remote patient monitoring. The company also offers psychosocial care. The company says that about 12% of its users are in remission from cancer.
The company's founder, Pelligrini, began his career as a surgeon in the U.S. Army and helped build the American Cancer Society's website to provide cancer information to patients and caregivers. Prior to founding Jasper, he served as senior vice president of virtual care and consumer health innovation at CVS Health.
Jasper Health's competitors include Thyme Care and Reimagine Care.