10 Years of Flare Scholars — Transforming the Business of Healthcare Together

Introducing the Flare Scholar Class of 2025

We are thrilled to introduce you to the Flare Scholar Class of 2025! This year, we welcome 66 new Flare Scholars to the program coming from backgrounds across business, medicine, engineering, and more. With the addition of these rising stars, we surpassed a big milestone: bringing us to a total of 445 Flare Scholars across current and alumni. The Class of 2025 joins us from a diverse breadth of academic institutions and industry organizations. Below are a few quick stats on the Class of 2025:

• Over 19 academic institutions and 30 industry organizations. Academic institutions include Baylor College of Medicine, Cornell Tech, Georgia Tech, Harvard Business School, London Business School, NYU, and Yale University, among others. Industry organizations include Allina Health, Advocate Health, Banner Health, Boston Children’s Hospital, Cleveland Clinic, CVS Health, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Google X, Humana, Novo Holdings, MedStar Health, Point32Health, and more.
• 12 technologists bringing world-class AI and engineering experience from within and outside of healthcare. This year, we saw an increase in the number of technical Flare Scholars, drawn from PhD and Master’s programs in computer science, engineering, data science, and beyond. Their expertise reflects our continued focus on healthcare AI and automation.
• >50% female representation and highly diverse class. For the fourth year in a row, the Flare Scholar class achieved gender parity and represents a highly diverse group of rising leaders, underscoring our firm’s commitment to cultivating a diverse, inclusive environment that empowers every future business leader to thrive and make an impact in the industry.

For those less familiar with the program, the Flare Scholar initiative is an annual professional development program designed for aspiring healthcare leaders, technologists, and mid-career executives to gain firsthand knowledge of healthcare technology and venture capital. The foundational tenets of the program are three-fold:

1. Provides real-world exposure to early-stage healthcare technology innovation.
2. Enables participants to learn directly from our firm’s investment team and industry partners.
3. Aims to accelerate opportunities and encourage inclusive growth for individuals interested in this space.

We receive several hundred applications each year, making it a highly competitive and differentiated program. In fact, we saw a 50%+ increase in applications received, which excites us as we look to continue to broaden and diversify the backgrounds of our Flare Scholars class.

Notably, 2025 is a particularly special moment as we enter our tenth year of the program. To celebrate this milestone, we take a brief look back at the evolution of the Flare Scholars program — unpacking the outcomes (with data) and providing a glimpse into where our Flare Scholar Alumni are working to transform the business of healthcare today.

A Decade in the Making

Since our inception in 2014, Flare Capital has been purpose-built to transform the business of healthcare. The Flare Scholar Program continues to be a cornerstone to executing that mission and has served as a key differentiator to our firm’s platform.

In our industry, where talent is so foundational to our collective success, we know the importance of investing in the top innovators of today and tomorrow. As investors, our time today is spent partnering with exceptional founders transforming the business of healthcare, but also dedicating resources to identifying the rising stars across our industry as our bet on emerging leaders.

When we launched the Flare Scholar Program in 2016, we had high hopes for our inaugural class which consisted of just 17 people. Little did we know what the program would grow into over the next decade. Today, the program consists of 445 Flare Scholars, current and alumni, that join us from the world’s leading graduate programs, and healthcare institutions. We are proud to see them go on to join founding, operating, and investing roles at top-tier organizations. Below is a brief snapshot of the network built to date.

Each year we look at the newly recruited class with optimism for where innovation in healthcare technology is headed. As anyone investing or operating in this sector long enough will tell you is that change does not happen overnight. With over a decade of experience since Flare Capitals’s founding in 2014, we have witnessed the ups and downs of the market, acknowledge the nascency of this sector, and view the emerging startup winners as a key indicator for continued success and growth in this sector. Considering this trajectory, investing in this brilliant group of rising stars is a no-brainer for us to continue to build a durable and dynamic firm that leads the transformation of healthcare innovation.

Of course, don’t just take our word on the impressive growth of the program, we will let the data speak for itself…

Since launching the program, the Flare Scholar Alumni continue to disrupt and innovate the healthcare technology industry — whether as a founder, investor, operator, clinician, and beyond. Below are a few key stats on our 379 Flare Scholar Alumni.

Once a Flare Scholar, always a Flare Scholar

As we like to say, “Once a Flare Scholar, always a Flare Scholar”.

Each year we are lucky to spend a full year with our Flare Scholar class through formal programming, but the journey really only starts there. Beyond tracking their success, we prioritize ongoing engagement with our Alumni network across various annual touchpoints. Below are a few highlights of our Flare Scholar Alumni engagement throughout 2024.

· Rising Tides 2024: In September we welcomed our most recent Flare Scholar Class of 2024 up to our annual summer event in Kennebunkport, Maine where they took part in a weekend of fun and connecting with our Flare Capital network, including LPs, portfolio company executives, and more.

• Flare Capital Pickleball & Happy Hour: Flare Scholars from across our 9 cohorts joined us in Boston for our annual healthtech community event where we connected over happy hour and some friendly competition in our pickleball tournament.
• Flare Scholar Day: During our Flare Scholar Day, Flare Scholars from across classes led and participated in dynamic panels with our industry partners and guest speakers, exploring the latest themes driving innovation in healthcare.
• Industry Dinners: Flare Scholars continue to host various industry dinners, happy hours, and meet-ups across the country in their respective cities.

From year one to year ten, we are consistently impressed by the caliber of the Flare Scholars and look forward to continuing to innovate and evolve the program for the future. We cannot wait to kick off our official programming with this stellar group and welcome them to the Flare Capital family.

Congratulations to the Class of 2025! We’re excited to see all that you accomplish this year, and beyond.

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