Top Texas Healthcare Angel Investors and VCs in 2026
Texas' top healthcare angel investors and venture capitalists include James Eadie of Sante Ventures, Jerry DeVries of TEXO Ventures, Marc Yagjian of Origin Partners, and Julia Taylor Cheek, founder of EverlyWell, all based in Austin and actively backing early-stage health tech, medical device, and biotech companies.
Texas is one of the largest healthcare investment markets in the country, and Austin in particular has built up a dense cluster of investors with operating experience in medtech and health services.
From Dallas to Houston, there are angels and VCs across the state backing healthcare founders and helping them scale with hands-on mentorship.
Here is the list of top angel investors in Texas who fund healthcare startups, along with what we could verify about each one's focus and track record.
Who Are the Top Angel Investors and VCs Funding Healthcare Startups in Texas?
Investors | Type | Focused Sectors | Notable Investments | Check Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
James Eadie | Venture Capital | Biotechnology, Health Care, Medical Device, Therapeutics, Clinical Trials | Farapulse, TVA Medical, Claret Medical, Millipede | Not publicly disclosed |
Jerry DeVries | Venture Capital | Health IT, Medical Devices, Home Health Care, Diagnostics, Orthopedics | Ortho Kinematics, Sensentia, CareDox, Wenzel Spine, Televero Health, IsoStem, OpenMarkets Health | Not publicly disclosed |
Marc Yagjian | Venture Capital | Enterprise Software, Health Care, Identity Management, Cyber Security | Venafi, Waveset Technologies, Intact Medical | Not publicly disclosed |
Julia Taylor Cheek | Angel/Individual | Health Care, Fitness, Wellness, Digital Health | First Dollar, Found, Natalist | Not publicly disclosed |
James Eadie
Type: Venture Capital (Managing Director, Sante Ventures)
Focused Sectors: Biotechnology, Health Care, Medical Device, Therapeutics, Clinical Trials, Health Diagnostics
Present In: Austin, Texas
Notable Investments: Farapulse (acquired by Boston Scientific), TVA Medical (acquired by Becton Dickinson), Claret Medical (acquired by Boston Scientific), Millipede (acquired by Boston Scientific).
James Eadie, MD, is a Managing Director at Sante Ventures, an Austin-based healthcare and life sciences venture firm, where he leads the medical device investment practice. He joined Sante in 2009 and is a board-certified emergency medicine physician who previously served in the U.S. Air Force.
Eadie partners with entrepreneurs from early-stage inception through clinical development and commercialization, with a focus on medical device and diagnostics companies.
Sante Ventures typically invests as an institutional venture fund rather than writing individual angel-sized checks, so a specific per-deal check size is not publicly disclosed.
Jerry DeVries
Type: Venture Capital (Co-founder and Managing Director, TEXO Ventures)
Focused Sectors: Health IT, Medical Devices, Home Health Care, Functional Diagnostics, Orthopedics, Technology-Enabled Health Services
Present In: Austin, Texas
Notable Investments: Ortho Kinematics, Sensentia, CareDox, Wenzel Spine, Televero Health, IsoStem, OpenMarkets Health.
Jerry DeVries is a co-founder and managing director of TEXO Ventures, an Austin-based early-stage healthcare venture firm founded in 2009. He has over 20 years of experience investing in and operating healthcare startups.
Earlier in his career, DeVries led marketing at an orthopedics company that was acquired by Zimmer Holdings for $3.2 billion in 2003. He went on to co-found Path4 Ventures alongside Austin Ventures, then served as an Operating Venture Partner at PTV Sciences from 2007 to 2009, where he led the investment in Ortho Kinematics, now a TEXO portfolio company.
As with most institutional healthcare venture firms, TEXO does not publicly disclose a standard check size.
Marc Yagjian
Type: Venture Capital (Managing Director, Origin Partners)
Focused Sectors: Enterprise Software, Health Care, Identity Management, Cyber Security, Risk Management
Present In: Austin, Texas
Notable Investments: Venafi, Waveset Technologies, Intact Medical.
Marc Yagjian has been a Managing Director at Origin Partners, an Austin-based venture firm, since 1998. His board and advisory roles include Venafi (2004 to 2017) and Waveset Technologies, and Origin Partners' portfolio has included the healthcare software company Intact Medical.
Yagjian is also a longtime mentor at Capital Factory in Austin. More recent bios describe him as a retired entrepreneur, investor, and adviser to early-stage technology companies, so founders should confirm his current investing activity before pitching.
Check size is not publicly disclosed.
Julia Taylor Cheek
Type: Angel/Individual
Focused Sectors: Health Care, Fitness, Wellness, Digital Health, Health IT
Present In: Austin, Texas
Notable Investments: First Dollar, Found, Natalist.
Julia Taylor Cheek is the founder and CEO of Everly Health (EverlyWell), the Austin-based at-home lab testing company, and is an active angel investor in her own right, with confirmed investments in companies including First Dollar, Found, and Natalist.
Before founding EverlyWell in 2015, Cheek worked in corporate development and strategy, including as Vice President at MoneyGram International.
Cheek's investment range is not publicly disclosed, and appears to vary by company and stage.
Wrap-Up:
Texas, and Austin in particular, has become a genuine hub for healthcare investors, with venture capitalists, operator-investors, and a smaller pool of individual angels all active in the space.
Securing funding still takes real work. Founders should stay focused on aligning their business vision with the interests of the specific investor they are approaching. Building solid networks, showing up at industry events, and coming in with a well-thought-out pitch that fits an investor's actual stated focus goes a lot further than a mass email blast.
Because most of the active healthcare capital in Texas flows through venture capital firms rather than individual angels, it is worth widening your search to include healthcare-focused investors of every type across the state, not just self-identified angels. You can also use the AngelMatch Investor Database to filter by sector, stage, and location at once.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are most Texas healthcare investors angels or venture capitalists?
Most of the well-known Texas healthcare investors are venture capitalists at firms like Sante Ventures, TEXO Ventures, and Origin Partners rather than individual angels. Genuine individual healthcare angels exist, but they are a smaller slice of the market and often invest alongside these firms rather than solo.
Which Texas city has the most healthcare investors?
Austin has the largest concentration of healthcare-focused investors in Texas, driven by firms like Sante Ventures and TEXO Ventures and by the University of Texas' health innovation ecosystem. Houston and Dallas also have active healthcare investor communities, particularly around the Texas Medical Center.
What stage do Texas healthcare investors typically fund?
Most of the firms on this list, including Sante Ventures and TEXO Ventures, focus on early-stage healthcare companies, from seed through Series A, with select investors participating in later rounds. Check sizes and stage focus vary by firm and are not always publicly disclosed.
How do I approach a Texas healthcare investor for funding?
Research the investor's actual portfolio and stated focus first, since healthcare investing spans very different sub-sectors like medical devices, health IT, and digital health. A pitch deck tailored to that specific focus, plus a warm introduction through a shared connection, performs far better than a cold generic email.
