VitalTrax receives first investment from that $6M digital health fund

University City-based VitalTrax, Zikria Syed’s software startup for clinical trials, is the first company to receive an investment out of that $6 million Philadelphia-focused digital health fund announced last December.

The health IT company obtained $150,000 in seed financing from the fund, which bands together cash from IBX (a subsidiary of Independence Health Group), Ben Franklin Technology Partners and Safeguard Scientifics.

Syed told Technical.ly that the money will be used to support product development and go-to-market efforts. The company currently has 10 employees working out of IC@3401.

“With its strong leadership and dedication to consumerizing the healthcare industry, VitalTrax is poised to be a major player in the region’s digital health space and beyond,” said in a statment Ben Franklin President and CEO, RoseAnn Rosenthal. “This is the first of many exciting deals to come through our funding initiative with Safeguard and IHG.”

Rosenthal also said Ben Franklin will lead the due diligence process and day-to-day fund management for the VitalTrax deal.

It’s a natural (and we’d also say safe) investment for the fund, as Syed has built and sold a company before: he raised more than $26 million for his Conshohocken life sciences startup NextDocs, grew to more than 100 employees and eventually sold it to Aurea Software in 2015.

“With this investment, we are not only gaining their financial support but also access to their expertise in building and growing technology companies and their vast network of relationships in the healthcare industry,” said Syed.

We last caught up with Syed last December at Founder Factory, where he shared the story of how we managed to attract the first investment for NextDocs.