Unite Us, a care coordination software maker that looks to connect social services with healthcare, has raised $35 million in a Series B round led by Oak HC/FT, according to a press release. With this, the company has raised a total of $45.3 million in funding.

Newcomers Town Hall Ventures and Define Ventures also joined the round, as did returning backers Scout Ventures, Luminate and New York Ventures.

WHAT THEY DO

Unite Us’ digital platform not only handles external referrals between community services and providers, but also tracks each patients’ outcomes and their journey through care. The company’s goal is to develop a unified support network able to address social determinants of health in ways that health systems or social service workers working alone could not.

“The market is just getting started when it comes to comprehensively addressing the social determinants of health,” Taylor Justice, president of Unite Us, said in a statement. “Providing the infrastructure and methodology that connects organizations across silos, enabling them to work together seamlessly, and proving that patients received services is just the start. There is still a long way to go, and with this investment, Unite Us will accelerate the industry’s transition to a value-based care system driven by social care.”

WHAT IT'S FOR

Unite Us said in the announcement the new funding will be used to fuel its continued growth and coordinated network curation.

MARKET SNAPSHOT

The need to address underlying sources of poor health is gaining credence among investors, payers and providers alike. Wellist, a digital startup offering a platform for referrals from hospitals to non-clinical support services, brought in $10 million in May 2018, and Salesforce unveiled new social determinant-focused features for its Health Cloud system just last month.

Of note, understanding social determinants within the US is a key goal of the NIH’s ongoing All of Us population health research program, which is taking extra efforts to enroll diverse and traditionally underrepresented demographics.

ON THE RECORD

“Health systems, health plans, employers and government are all talking about social determinants, but the challenge is finding, connecting and delivering needed services in an efficient and effective way at scale,” Nancy Brown, partner at Oak HC/FT, said in a statement. “The holistic view Unite Us takes to fulfilling these needs has positioned the company as the leader in the space, and we are thrilled to partner with the team as they continue to address the most important and impactful issues in health care today.”