Chester Ng

I’m thrilled to announce defy.vc’s investment in Birches Health as part of their $20M combined Seed and Series A funding round, alongside incredible partners like AlleyCorp, General Catalyst, Will Ventures, and others. As someone deeply passionate about backing companies that tackle important problems for our society, I couldn’t be more excited about what Birches is building—a national virtual clinic dedicated to treating gambling addiction and related behavioral disorders like gaming, sex, porn, and internet addictions. What excites me most is Birches’ innovative health assurance model: proactive, accessible, and affordable care that’s evidence-based and delivered right at home. With the explosion of legal sports betting—think nearly $1.5 billion wagered on this year’s Super Bowl alone—we’re staring down a looming public health emergency. Traditional options like hotlines or generic therapy fall short for this high-acuity issue, but Birches changes that by offering specialized therapy from trained clinicians, multimodal treatment, and peer support, all covered by major insurers like United Healthcare, Cigna, Aetna, and Blue Cross Blue Shield. It’s available in all 50 states, breaking down geographical and financial barriers that have left so many without help. The impact is already profound: 96% of patients report an improved quality of life, and 94% give Birches a 5/5 rating. By partnering with state governments, payors, and policymakers, Birches is pushing gambling addiction into the spotlight of behavioral health conversations, where it’s been neglected for too long—often leading to shame, worsened outcomes, and higher suicidality risks. This funding will supercharge their growth: expanding the provider network, boosting clinical excellence, scaling infrastructure, and deepening insurance and state partnerships to meet surging demand. Very excited to partner with Elliott Rapaport and the entire Birches team! See more about our POV in the blog post linked in the comments. #GamblingAddiction #BehavioralHealth #HealthTech #VentureCapital #Innovation

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Brex just announced they are going all in on "Agentic Commerce".  Here's my interview w/ Founder & CEO Pedro Franceschi where he unpacks why. The battle for Agentic Commerce is one of the most important things happening in fintech...$100s of billions of payment volumes are up for grabs. We talk about - What is agentic commerce & why it matters? - Why the biggest near term opportunity is B2B (not consumer)? - What the competitive landscape looks like? (Ramp also announced their Agentic commerce offering the same day!) I’m especially excited to talk to Pedro because he’s an amazing engineer.   - At 13 he jailbroke the iphone - At 15 he founded Pagar.me (the Stripe of brazil) - At 22 he founded Brex Today, he’s 29, recently married (congrats!) and is working 9-9-6 with a small team of engineers in person in San Francisco to build the future of Agentic Commerce. Check out the full interview here: https://lnkd.in/g5nSRDXJ

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