Rock Health, the accelerator for startups specializing in health-related apps, has landed a big new partner: Famed Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
The partnership will bring a nice cash boost for Rock Health startups. Kleiner is joining Rock Health’s existing partners Mohr Davidow Ventures, Aberdare Ventures, and the Mayo Clinic to provide $100,000 of investment for each startup that graduates out of the next Rock Health class (the 35 total startups that have launched out of Rock Health’s three previous classes each received $20,000 in funding.) Rock Health is opening up the three-week application period for its fourth class today.
Kleiner Perkins partners Beth Seidenberg (who holds a medical degree) and Mike Abbott are co-sponsoring the firm’s Rock Health sponsorship. Rock Health founder and CEO Halle Tecco tells me that the partnership came about through Abbott, who has been an advisor to Rock Health since its inception in early 2011 while he was working as the CTO of Twitter. He joined Kleiner Perkins as a partner in late 2011.
It’s always great to talk to Tecco, so we headed over to Rock Health’s offices to sit down with her and Rock Health’s COO Sarah Pollet about the Kleiner Perkins news and hear first-hand about how things have been going for the startup accelerator overall. Watch the video embedded above to get a look at Rock Health’s San Francisco headquarters, hear about what the overall vibe Rock Health is looking to create, find out what is up with those chartreuse hoodies, and more.