Silicon Valley-based VitalConnect, a producer of wireless wearable monitoring devices, announced the closure of a $38 million Series C funding round. The funding round was led by MVM and Baxter Ventures, with participation from Mercy.
VitalConnect is best known for its FDA-cleared, disposable peel-and-stick health sensor, the VitalPatch. Combined with a software platform, the wearable continuously measures eight different vitals (ECG, heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, skin temperature, posture, severity, and steps) in real-time. The company’s original sensor, the HealthPatch MD, was larger and non-disposable.
VitalConnected launched in 2011 with $12 million in Series A funding announced that same year. Along with 2016 $22 million in Series B, this brings the company’s total funding to roughly $72 million. With this funding, VitalConnect plans to roll out its biosensor in new hospitals and outpatient settings across the US, according to the release
“We envision a hospital of the future where inpatient and outpatient care needs integrate more seamlessly to enable a patient-centric model of care that is truly preventative and real-time,” Nersi Nazari, CEO and founder of VitalConnect, said in a statement. “Our close of $38 million in total financing this year will help drive our continued product development and rollout with Mercy.”
Currently, VitalPatch is employed by select Mercy hospitals, but as per Nazari and Scott Alexander, vice president of innovation and product development at Mercy, the sensors will see continued rollout among Mercy's healthcare sites.
“We have a common goal with VitalConnect around saving lives and providing better care to patients,” Alexander said in a statement. “The initial rollout and ongoing commitment to optimize workflow and patient engagement for hospital and outpatient populations made it an easy decision for us to invest in the continued growth of VitalConnect.”
In November of 2016, VitalConnect teamed up with PhysIQ to launch a pilot initiative investigating continuous patient monitoring technology’s potential to replace traditional hospitalizations. Earlier that year, the two announced an integration between VitalConnect’s patch and PhysIQ’s personalized physiology analytics system.
