Founded in 2015, Singapore-headquartered digital health and data analytics company Holmusk yesterday announced a $21.5 million funding round, led by Optum Ventures (OV) and Health Catalyst Capital (HCC) and included existing investors Heritas Capital and other individuals.

Dr Vijay Barathan from OV and Charles Boorady from HCC will be joining the Board of Directors.

Holmusk has offices in New York City, London and Shanghai. The new funding round allows Holmusk to expand its US operations in New York City, and enables investment in its proprietary technology to harness and analyze real-world data to accelerate drug development and data-driven medicine.

The company is building the world's largest Real-World Evidence (RWE) platform in behavioral health and chronic diseases to expand data-driven, evidence-based care for people managing behavioral health conditions. According to Holmusk, this is done by bringing together specialty behavioral health data and Holmusk's analytics platform to deliver evidence-based insight that care providers, health care payers and patients can use to make fully informed care and treatment decisions, and better integrate care for people with both behavioral and chronic health needs.

THE LARGER TREND

Last June, Holmusk signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Janssen (China) Research & Development Centre to explore the development of a digital mental health strategy in China, MobiHealthNews reported. Based on the MoU, Holmusk and Janssen propose to focus on generating insights from real-world data on depression and other mental health disorders to develop novel, scalable solutions to address the increasing burden of disease in China.

In 2016, Holmusk acquired MindLinc, an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system focused on behavioral health, from Duke University School of Medicine. This enabled the company to leverage longitudinal data from many mental health institutions across US, stretching over 20 years.

ON THE RECORD

"In situations like today, the need for Real-World Evidence is more pronounced than ever," said Nawal Roy, Holmusk's Founder & CEO. "We are fortunate to bring on partners like Optum Ventures and Health Catalyst Capital who understand the importance and are excited to join us in our mission to drive evidence-based care."

"Our team is encouraged by Holmusk's evidence-based approach to improving care for people suffering from behavioral health disorders, and we look forward to working closely with the Holmusk team to support the next phase of growth" said Dr Vijay Barathan of Optum Ventures.

Charles Boorady of Health Catalyst Capital said, "by redefining the EHR from a repository of data to a clinical decision support tool with connectivity to digital therapeutics, Holmusk is uniquely positioned to improve patient care while reducing administrative burden and supporting the research and development of new care models and therapies."