On the TechTO stage ×1
First seen on the TechTO stage in 2025. Every talk is searchable — ask the archive about Ella ↗
In their words
We're an early stage digital health VC, so we do software services as well as medtech, seed through Series B. Based in Toronto with offices in Montreal as well.
I think about healthcare as one space where we can't move fast and break things. People will die. But there's a lot of inefficiency, there's a ton of paper, there's a lot of manual labour — and so wherever you see that, that's what I think is really interesting.
If your market in North America is not a billion dollars, it could still be an amazing business for you and your co-founders. It might just not be venture-backable, and that is totally fine.
Around the web ×1
Quick answers
Who is Ella Seitz?
Managing partner of Esplanade Ventures, a Canadian digital health venture fund investing in early-stage healthcare technology across Canada and the US. Before investing she spent over fifteen years in healthcare, including as a vice president at McKesson and a principal at the consultancy Kearney.
What did she say about AI in healthcare at TechTO?
That the useful applications start at the back end. On TechTO's HealthTO panel in August 2025 she said healthcare is one space where you cannot move fast and break things, so the near-term value is in the paper, the manual labour, the claims adjusting and the diagnostics — with clinical decision support arriving later.
What makes her pass on a company?
No business model, AI as a label rather than a method, and a market that isn't big enough. She told founders that a company below a billion-dollar North American market can still be an excellent business — it just may not be venture-backable, and said that is completely fine.