Arteria Capital
Investment Thesis
Arteria Capital is a new, healthcare-only venture fund that invests exclusively in early-stage AI-enabled healthcare companies. The firm's pitch is that U.S. healthcare (about $4.9T in annual spend, with roughly $1T of estimated waste) remains fragmented and constrained by disconnected workflows, and that AI finally makes it possible to fix administrative bloat, data silos and provider shortages. The name comes from the word for artery: the firm wants to be a vital conduit that connects early-stage healthcare AI companies to health systems, payers and capital. Its stated criteria are great teams, narrow focus, differentiated technology, efficient distribution, strong unit economics and a meaningful TAM.
The site groups example opportunity areas into three buckets. Patient experience covers virtual health assistants, remote screening, preventive care (cardiometabolic risk) and aging-population care such as medication adherence and loneliness. Clinical quality covers early disease detection from imaging, personalized care plans, predictive analytics and AI-assisted clinical interventions such as surgery and ultrasound guidance. Operational efficiency covers data management, billing, claims and administrative automation, scheduling and patient-flow tooling, and hospital operations command centers.
Stage Focus
Pre-seed and seed. The portfolio page labels three companies Pre-Seed (Valyd, Foci, Wrapped) and three Seed (ProvectAI, MiiHealth, Nurra Health), though third-party aggregators label some of these differently, so stage per company is not asserted here.
Check Size
Not published. The firm is structured as Arteria Capital Fund I, L.P., a pooled investment fund that filed a Form D in March 2026 with a total offering of $50M (per SEC-derived aggregators). With a $50M vehicle and a concentrated early-stage strategy, initial checks are plausibly in the low hundreds of thousands to low millions of dollars, but this is an inference and is not stated by the firm.
Lead Tendency
At least one confirmed lead: Russell Glass is reported as leading MiiHealth AI's $2.8M seed round (Phoenix Business Journal, August 2026). Other rounds are not documented, so lead tendency is recorded as unknown to slightly leading, with low confidence.
Recent Activity
The firm was founded in 2026 and is in its first fund. The only dated deal located is the MiiHealth seed in August 2026. The firm's Notes blog (Ghost) has one placeholder post from May 2026 ("Stay tuned"). Fund status is best described as actively deploying its first fund.
Portfolio Highlights
Six companies are listed: ProvectAI (AI that builds high-quality 3D intraoperative imaging from 2D scans, avoiding bulky high-radiation CT), Valyd (healthcare identity and biometric authentication layer for autonomous AI agents), Foci (continuous-time multimodal foundation model for human physiology), MiiHealth (Mayo Clinic co-developed agentic AI intake and navigation, Phoenix), Nurra Health (AI-powered chronic care management for Medicare patients, no cost to clinics or patients), and Wrapped (EHR-native checkout for provider-recommended over-the-counter health products, live on the athenahealth marketplace and fulfilled by Walmart). There are no exits yet, which is expected for a 2026 fund.
Team
Russell Glass is the founder and general partner and the only named partner. He is the former CEO of Headspace and Ginger (merged into a $200M+ mental health company), and founder-CEO of Bizo, which sold to LinkedIn for $175M. He has also worked at ZoomInfo and Trilogy. He reports raising more than $300M across companies, creating $1.4B+ in exit value, and serving as investor, advisor or board member to 30+ seed-stage companies. LinkedIn lists the firm at one employee. An unnamed, anonymized advisory network supports portfolio companies: a former CMS Chief Medical Officer and Blue Cross plan CEO, a Google DeepMind alumnus, a former mental health platform CEO and Calm COO, an enterprise AI and security executive (SolarWinds, Trilogy), a healthcare investor from HealthQuest Ventures and KP Ventures, a health-system chief scientific officer, an academic cardiologist, a hospitalist CMO, and a healthcare go-to-market leader.
Decision Process
Solo general partner. Russell Glass is the sole decision maker on the Form D and the website; advisors provide expertise but no committee is described.
Founder Preferences
Operator-minded founders solving a concrete workflow, clinical or payer problem with AI, with narrow focus and efficient distribution. The firm emphasizes hands-on company building: go-to-market, hiring, distribution strategy and C-suite introductions at health systems, payers and technology companies. Third-party profiles suggest warm intros are preferred, though the site also invites cold contact through its form and [email protected].
Geographic Focus
Headquartered in Palo Alto, CA. The portfolio includes Phoenix-based MiiHealth; the website states no geographic restriction and the focus is U.S. healthcare.
Gaps
Check size, ownership targets, reserve policy, and the exact stage of each investment are not published. Only one partner is named.