5 Questions with Averin Capital’s Eric Berry

Founded by brothers with billion-dollar company-building experience, Averin is betting that technology has finally matured to transform every major touchpoint in healthcare. In this Q&A with Eric Berry, he  shares their origin story, investment thesis at the intersection of health and tech, and why their partnership with NVNG—and the Midwest ecosystem—feels uniquely well timed.

Q: Can you tell us about Averin’s origin story and superpower? 

Averin was founded by my brother David and me, driven by a shared curiosity at the intersection of technology and medicine that goes back to our time in a college biology lab—running experiments, writing code, and co-authoring papers in computational biology. That early collaboration evolved into parallel careers building and scaling transformational companies. Between us, we’ve helped start and / or lead eight businesses that have each reached billion-dollar scale.

We came back together to launch Averin around a simple but powerful thesis: technology has finally matured to the point where it can transform every major touchpoint in healthcare. With my background as an MIT-trained AI engineer and former tech CEO, and David’s as a Harvard/MIT-trained MD/PhD with two decades of operating and investing experience in life sciences, Averin brings a rare combination of deep technical fluency, medical rigor, and company-building muscle.

Our superpower is pairing that depth with decisive, founder-first partnership. We move quickly, think long-term, and help build enduring companies at the intersection of human health and technology.

Q: Why are Averin and NVNG a good fit/what makes you excited to work together?

Averin and NVNG are deeply aligned in both ethos and focus. We share a conviction that some of the most consequential innovation, especially in health and technology, is emerging outside of traditional venture hubs. NVNG’s mission to elevate Midwestern innovation with national-level capital and connectivity is exactly the kind of platform we want to build with.

We’re especially excited by NVNG’s unique positioning at the intersection of institutional capital, regional opportunity, and long-term partnership. Averin brings complementary strengths: a team with deep operating and technical backgrounds, a highly focused investment thesis at the intersection of health and tech, and a strong track record of helping companies scale across regulated, fragmented markets.

Q: What is your take on the Midwest/WI Venture Ecosystem and how Averin fits into that map?

Wisconsin’s legacy in healthcare (e.g., Epic Systems in Madison), paired with strong research institutions like UW-Madison and the Medical College of Wisconsin, creates a robust foundation for both technical and clinical innovation. We’ve seen ideas in remote diagnostics, elder care infrastructure, and tech-enabled specialty clinics emerge from this ecosystem – each well aligned with Averin’s thesis at the intersection of health and technology. Wisconsin provides both talent and translational science that make the area fertile ground for new ventures. It’s also worth noting that Wisconsin institutions have been pivotal in immunotherapy (e.g., the pioneering work on CAR-T), stem cell research, and protein engineering.

Wisconsin has produced several anchor institutions and breakout companies that have reshaped their categories. Epic Systems, based in Verona, is arguably the most important health tech infrastructure company in the U.S., anchoring a network of health system relationships and clinical data that catalyzes downstream innovation. Exact Sciences, founded in Madison, has become a category-defining player in early cancer diagnostics, proving that complex clinical products can scale from the Midwest to the world. Promega (Madison) has long been a quiet global leader in life science tools. Companies like SHINE Technologies (Janesville), working on next-generation radioisotopes for diagnostics and therapy, and Nimble Therapeutics (Milwaukee), a peptide-based drug discovery platform spun out of Roche, show the region’s range from precision medicine to advanced manufacturing.

Q: What are trends you are seeing in venture capital within your thesis and stage?

We’re seeing a few trends within our focus at the intersection of health and technology, especially at the early stages:

• Infrastructure for Decentralized Care: There’s a strong shift from traditional facility-based care to more distributed, patient-centric models, whether in the home, in the community, or virtually. We’re seeing a wave of companies building the tech-enabled infrastructure to support this, from remote diagnostics and logistics orchestration to workforce marketplaces and specialized virtual clinics.
• The Rise of Applied AI in Clinical Workflows: Large models have unlocked new opportunities to automate previously manual or expert-driven tasks across imaging, documentation, triage, and even early diagnostics. But the winning companies are those that pair technical excellence with deep domain embedding (e.g., deploying within the EHR, integrating into billing workflows, or wrapping the tech with services). We’re seeing a new generation of vertical AI-native companies emerge here.
• Value-Based Infrastructure and Enablement: As payment models shift, companies enabling risk-bearing entities – whether providers, payers, or new entrants – are gaining traction. We’re especially interested in companies offering backend infrastructure, analytics, and care coordination tools that support value-based models, often in specialty or overlooked populations.
• Aging, Brain Health, and Caregiver Tech: Demographic tailwinds are driving innovation across elder care, neurodegenerative conditions, and tools for caregivers. This includes remote neuro-assessment, at-home therapeutics, and platforms that support behavioral and cognitive care outside of traditional clinics.

Across all of these, we’re seeing stronger founder quality than ever, with more repeat operators entering the space. Our job is to help turn powerful ideas into real businesses that move the needle on human health.

Q: What are you most excited for as you look at the state of the spaces you invest in?

The barrier between deep tech and healthcare is breaking down. You’re seeing AI researchers team up with clinicians, biologists launch platforms with product sensibility, and engineers who used to work on consumer apps now building infrastructure for care delivery, clinical trials, and computational biology.

This moment feels like a generational unlock. We now have the tools across AI, cloud infrastructure, synthetic biology, and data interoperability to fundamentally redesign how we diagnose, treat, and manage disease. But the most exciting part is that founders are building with more realism. They understand that success requires not just great tech, but regulatory fluency, clinical empathy, and scalable operations. That maturity creates investable companies, not just science projects.

We’re also excited by the redefinition of what “healthcare” even means. It’s no longer just hospitals and biopharma – it’s food, aging, brain health, women’s health, and invisible infrastructure. The surface area for transformation has never been larger, and we’re just getting started.