BetterDoctor's iPhone App
In recent weeks a number of digital health startups have announced rounds of funding totaling some $26 million. MobiHealthNews has previously covered the venture capital Agile Health, iSonea, and Sherpaa raised in recent days. Here's a quick round-up of a few other digital health investments.
Aberdare Ventures and the West Health Investment Fund announced investments in medication adherence startup RxAnte this week. The first round of funding, which Aberdare led, will help RxAnte "further develop [its] proprietary technologies, commercialize its current offerings, and expand the company's impact on the quality of medication use," according to the announcement. The financial details of the investment were undisclosed.
This week San Francisco-based BetterDoctor launched its web and mobile-based physician search service, which so far has $650,000 in seed financing. The company's early investors include physicians and angels Steve Wolf, Jason Johnson, Dr. Philip Settimi, Dr. Charles Lim, Devon George, Erik Engelson, Dr. Joseph Andresen and Chris Burggraeve, according to TechCrunch. The company, which was founded by two former Nokia execs is in the process of raising its next round. BetterDoctor is a mobile-optimized service that helps users find and book appointments with physicians in their area, but the database of doctors is curated by the company and is invitation-only to ensure high quality, according to BetterDoctor.
Patientco, which offers patients a free web portal for paying, managing, and tracking health care expenses, has raised $3.75 million from BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners and Sandbox Industries. Patientco also works with healthcare providers to offer users incentives to pay their bills earlier -- 10 percent off for paying the bill within a month of their appointment, for example. The company plans to use the money for product development and marketing to expand its user base. According to Atlanta Business Chronicle, the company is profitable, too.
Doximity, an online network for doctors that enables -- among other things -- secure messaging and collaboration between them, raked in $17 million in funding this month led by Morgenthaler Ventures. Doximity, which was founded by one of the founders of Epocrates, says about one in seven doctors in the US is now on the platform. The company previously raised about $10.8 million, which brings its total funding to date to close to $28 million.
Earlier in the week, MobiHealthNews reported on Agile Health's $2 million in funding. The company, which was founded by ex-Caremark executives, is working to repurpose its smoking cessation application for diabetes management. Last week iSonea announced $1.05 million in funding to help transform its medical devices for people with asthma into smartphone peripherals. Finally, Hello Health co-founder Dr. Jay Parkinson's startup, called Sherpaa, raised $1.85 million, to help other startups better navigate health insurance and provide health care for their employees.
