Billionaire Investor Tim Draper and 23andMe Founder Anne Wojcicki Help Tech Luminaries, Operators, and Scientists Accelerate AI in Health

PALO ALTO, Calif.: Treehub, a Stanford-adjacent residency backed by the AI Health Fund, today launched as ​​the first boutique program built to scout and back early-stage founders emerging from academic ecosystems. Situated just off campus in Los Altos, Treehub fills a critical gap in the healthcare innovation pipeline: the moment between breakthrough ideation and a fundable company, where the most promising founders have historically been without capital, support, or a path forward, and where great ideas are left behind.

“The next great healthcare company probably isn't being built in a garage. It's being built in a lab by a scientist who has never had a venture partner willing to back them at the earliest stage. Treehub bridges that gap,” said Mary Minno, Founding Partner. “These founders deserve a dedicated path built around them, not bolted onto a traditional fund structure. What we are funding out of academic circles will actually move the needle on patient outcomes and help solve today’s broken healthcare ecosystem.”

AI Health Fund, Treehub’s venture arm, writes the first check into every Treehub company – often committing capital before a company's formation. From there, founders gain unparalleled access to the resources that set Treehub apart, including medical data and insights unavailable to conventional funds, curated programming with builders, payer, buyers, and investors, and direct access to the founders and builders who have successfully built and exited several startups. By combining the hands-on support of a venture studio, the community of an incubator, and the capital of a venture fund, Treehub accelerates founders within academia and research building in AI and health at the earliest stage.

Treehub is led by Mary Minno, a former venture-backed founder, early stage operator, and Product Management Executive at Google; Dr. Roxana Daneshjou, MD, PhD, FAAD, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Data Science and Dermatology at Stanford Medicine, and advisor to OpenEvidence and Pear VC; Derek Minno, President of Point Capital with over 25 years managing portfolios exceeding $6 billion; and Dr. Alexander Ioannidis, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Data Science and Genetics at Stanford and founder of Galatea Bio. Esther Wojcicki, educator, author, and godmother of Silicon Valley, joins as Founding Advisor. Anne Wojcicki, founder of 23andMe, joins as Operating Partner.

“My guiding principle, TRICK – Trust, Respect, Independence, Collaboration, and Kindness – are just as essential in building transformative companies as they are in raising successful individuals. Treehub embodies these values, bringing together the academic rigor, moral clarity, and collaborative spirit to back the founders who will transform how we care for one another,” said Esther Wojcicki, Founding Advisor.

Treehub was built on the conviction that healthcare has not lacked innovation, it lacked investment in the right places. The breakthroughs most likely to transform patient outcomes are not only emerging from incremental software layers. They are also coming from university labs, built by scientists and researchers who have spent years at the frontier of biology, genomics, and AI.

Treehub targets investments on three domains where AI and science are converging to reshape what healthcare can deliver:

• Precision Outcomes: From genomic risk stratification to consumer-driven care - ensuring every patient receives treatment tailored to them.
• Care Efficiency: Ambient intelligence and automated logistics that eliminate administrative burden and return the normal to healthcare.
• Frontier Science: From robotic surgery to digital twin simulations – the technology forming the cornerstone of the future of human health.

“I’ve seen what happens when brilliant scientists get the right support at the right moment,” said Anne Wojcicki, Operating Partner. “Treehub is building the infrastructure to make that repeatable and at the scale and speed the healthcare industry actually needs."

To learn more or apply to the inaugural cohort, visit https://jointreehub.com/.

About Treehub

Treehub is a boutique residency program for scientist-founders in healthcare, backed by AI Health Fund. Situated just off Stanford’s campus and with partners from Stanford’s Biomedical Data Science faculty, Treehub runs cohorts of up to 10 companies four times per year. The inaugural cohort launches Stanford Spring Quarter 2026. For more information, visit https://jointreehub.com/.

About AI Health Fund:

AI Health Fund is an investment vehicle purpose-built to identify and back early-stage founders emerging from academic ecosystems at the intersection of AI and medicine.

Fonte: Business Wire