Detroit-based Navv Systems, a health care technology company focused on hospital personnel location and equipment tracking and location services, announced it has closed a $3.2 million seed funding round led by Ann Arbor-based Arboretum Ventures. Detroit Venture Partners joined the financing with existing investors including Ann Arbor-based Narrow Gauge Ventures.
NavvTrack was developed at Henry Ford Innovations in Detroit — the development and commercialization arm of Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) — and licensed it to Navv in 2019 to help hospitals track equipment, personnel, and clinical workflows. The technology is already in use at all six HFHS hospitals to optimize patient transport, housekeeping, and central pharmacy deliveries.
“This financing is an important achievement to support our continued growth with new health system customers,” says Dr. Daniel Siegal, Navv’s co-founder and CEO and vice-chair of radiology at HFHS. “Asset tracking remains a difficult challenge in need of a holistic solution that encompasses equipment, patients, and clinicians.”
The system is also in use at the Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington, Mass. The company says implementation of the system has resulted in workflow improvements and cost efficiency by coordinating teams, better estimating task fulfillment timing, and enabling effective supply chain planning.
Arboretum Ventures is a venture capital firm specializing in the health care sector. Founded in 2002, the firm has raised $700 million to support a diverse portfolio by targeting capital-efficient companies that improve patient outcome and reduce costs. Tim Petersen, managing partner at Arboretum, has joined Navv’s board of directors.
“We’ve been very impressed with the sophistication of Navv’s technology, and the early customer traction Dan and his team have achieved,” says Petersen. “Navv is another prime example of clinician-led innovation emanating from a world-class organization like Henry Ford, addressing an important and immediate healthcare challenge.”
Detroit Venture Partners was founded in 2010 by Dan Gilbert and has been backing early-stage tech companies that advance the world. It leverages more than 90 companies within the Rock Family of Cos., including Rocket Mortgage, the Cleveland Cavaliers, Bedrock, and StockX.
