Building a Healthier Future: How Impact Alpha Is Shaping Healthcare Innovation

By Eve Castel, CFA, Head of Sustainability, Black Opal Ventures

What does meaningful progress in healthcare look like? In a system facing fragmented incentives, widening disparities, and rising costs, success can no longer be measured by financial returns alone. It must also be reflected in improved lives, expanded access, and more equitable outcomes.  This is where impact alpha comes in. The phrase impact alpha has been part of investing conversations for nearly a decade, but its meaning continues to evolve. Originally popularized by the publication ImpactAlpha, it describes the value created by companies and strategies that deliver measurable, positive social or environmental outcomes alongside financial returns. 

Impact alpha represents a shift in thinking, from a focus on ESG compliance and risk management to tangible results, long-term resilience, and stakeholder value. It reflects a belief that investing in progress delivers the strongest returns, for both investors and society. 

At Black Opal Ventures, we invest in companies solving the unsolved problems in healthcare, from under-addressed diseases, affordability and access to security and privacy. This naturally leads us toward frontier technologies. Tools like generative AI, robotics, bioengineering, next-generation computing, and communication platforms are reshaping how care is delivered and how health systems function. Companies like Flyte Health are using data-driven virtual care to close gaps in obesity treatment, while TigerGraph’s real-time graph analytics are helping health systems make smarter decisions with complex data. 

We think of frontier technology broadly. It includes not only clinical innovation but also the infrastructure that supports healthcare systems: platforms for secure communication, workflow automation, patient privacy, and the logistics of care delivery. Whether it enables faster diagnosis, streamlines administration, or improves the patient journey, technology is a lever for impact-driven innovation, better outcomes, and system-wide change.  Companies like Hyro, which uses conversational AI and LLMs to automate patient communication and administrative workflows, and AuthMind, which provides real-time identity security and threat detection across hybrid healthcare environments, are examples of how strengthening the infrastructure layer can drive better system-wide outcomes. 

In our 2024 Impact Report, we highlight how our portfolio companies are applying these technologies to real-world challenges. They are designing new models of care, expanding reach to underserved populations, and improving cost-effectiveness. For example, Empatica’s medical-grade wearables are enabling real-world clinical monitoring across 160 countries, while Conceivable is using robotics and AI to automate IVF, improving success rates and expanding access to fertility care. Across these examples is a belief that innovation matters only when it leads to meaningful progress.  

Our work is also aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which provide a global framework for advancing social, economic, and environmental well-being. Many of the SDGs intersect with healthcare, from promoting gender equality in access to care to building the infrastructure that supports resilient health systems. While SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) is at the center of healthcare impact, many of our investments contribute to other goals such as advancing gender equality (SDG 5), improving infrastructure (SDG 9), reducing inequality (SDG 10), and supporting peace, justice, and strong institutions (SDG 16).  

Technology and innovation play a critical role in addressing these challenges and supporting more resilient, efficient, and accessible systems that can adapt to evolving health and environmental risks. Impact alpha is essential for investing in the structural foundations of a healthier and more stable society. Like sustainability, impact alpha doesn’t sit in a silo. It is woven into financial strategy and how resilient businesses create value over the long term. 

Putting that mindset into practice starts with asking different questions. Instead of “Do you have an ESG policy?” we ask, “What outcomes does your company deliver?” and “Who benefits, and in what ways?” This helps us move beyond passive screening to active engagement, especially in venture and early-stage markets where foundational decisions are still being shaped. 

In healthcare, this often means working in the complexities of early innovation where clinical evidence, access, and infrastructure must be weighed alongside growth and revenue models. Building sustainable systems requires more than good intentions. We need financially resilient businesses that can grow, scale, and compete in real markets. Without sustainable financial returns, even the best-intentioned impact strategies cannot succeed over the long term. Profitability and positive outcomes must move together. Lasting systems change will not come from philanthropy alone; it requires companies that are economically viable and operationally strong enough to drive change at scale. 

The best returns come from investing in solutions that work better for more people over longer time horizons. This is how early innovation scales and how real impact alpha is created. At Black Opal Ventures, we are proud to support and learn from our portfolio companies building solutions with lasting impact.