When Innovation Scales Access: Cleerly, Egal, and the Power of Regenerative Capital
Each year, TIME spotlights the ideas and organizations redefining what’s possible in health innovation.
In 2025, two companies in CIF’s investment portfolio—Cleerly and Egal Pads—earned that spotlight. Cleerly was named one of TIME’s World’s Top HealthTech Companies of 2025 for its use of AI to help physicians identify, define, and prevent heart disease with unprecedented precision. Egal Pads’ Pads on a Roll™ was recognized as one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2025 in Health & Wellness for reimagining menstrual access through design simplicity and reach.
Cleerly uses advanced AI and coronary CT imaging to shift heart care from reaction to prevention—quantifying arterial plaque so clinicians and patients can act before damage occurs. In 2025, UnitedHealthcare and Cigna added coverage for Cleerly LABS Advanced Plaque Analysis, expanding AI-guided early detection to millions of Americans.
Egal Pads targets one of the most basic yet overlooked needs in women’s health: menstrual access. Its roll-mounted dispenser replaces outdated coin machines, offering free, reliable pads directly inside restroom stalls. The result is efficiency, privacy, and reach—scaling rapidly from schools to airports to stadiums—and earning additional honors, including Fast Company’s Innovation by Design recognition.
Why this matters: access as infrastructure
Both companies share something deeper than awards. They illustrate a shift in how innovation works when it’s designed for access, not exclusivity.
Cleerly turns data into prevention, bridging the gap between discovery and routine care. Egal transforms a basic necessity into functional public-health infrastructure. One operates in imaging labs; the other in everyday facilities. Both show that systems-level progress isn’t just about new technology—it’s about better architecture for participation.
Catalytic capital in motion
The connection isn’t coincidence—it’s capital design. CIF’s regenerative philanthropy model deploys catalytic capital early, validating ideas traditional funders overlook. We help founders build proof, attract follow-on investment, and, when returns emerge, recycle them to fund the next wave of innovation.
That flywheel rewards measurable outcomes and sustainable reach. Cleerly converts imaging into actionable prevention; Egal converts design into scalable access. Together, they demonstrate what happens when early capital compounds in the right hands: innovation stops being an experiment and becomes part of how the world works.
Their recognition by TIME isn’t just a milestone—it’s proof that when impact capital compounds, solutions once considered niche can redefine the standard of care.
