This morning Tia, a tech enabled women’s health company, closed its Series A round raking in $24.27 million in new capital. Threshold Venture’s Emily Melton led the round with participation from Define Ventures, ACME, Torch Capital, John Doerr, Homebrew and Compound.

WHAT THEY DO

Tia follows a hybrid model of care – it offers both brick-and-mortar services and virtual tools to patients. The New York-based startup focuses exclusively on women’s health – but that being said it runs the gamut of services from gynecological appointments to mental health services. 

Company cofounder Carolyn Witte got the idea for the company after going through the healthcare system for years struggling to figure out a diagnosis. 

“I went through a three-year long PCOS [Polycystic ovary syndrome] diagnosis,” Witte said. “It is one of those classic issues in healthcare that gets stuck between the cracks of the healthcare system. It was through this diagnosis process, which is very difficult to get diagnosed in the first place, that I experienced three big pain points that we seek to solve at Tia.” 

Those three big pain points are fragmentation, a lack of personalization and the focus on sick care vs prevention. 

The company originally started as a digital health messaging company for pre- and post-care, but Witte said the team decided to expand to brick-and-mortar as well in order to meet the full continuum of care. 

“We made a bet on brick-and-mortar understanding not all women’s health could be done on the Internet, and we believe that was a really core place for that relationship to be solidified between the patient and the provider. Many, many core women health services have to be done in real life, so that was what led to the full stack care model,” she said. 

The coronavirus has pushed the company to now look into different ways of incorporating digital. Tia has developed new virtual capabilities.

“While we are excited about virtual and the rapid adoption of it we are weary of an inaccurate perception that virtual is the silver bullet solution and it can replace in-person care, especially women’s health, when physical exams and so many services must be done in your life,” she said. “What would happen if women aren’t going to get their mammograms or aren’t going to get their pelvic exams or aren’t going to prenatal visits?” she said. “What we are betting on is that the future isn’t virtual only but virtually integrated.”

WHAT IT’S FOR

The company plans to use the new funds in order to build out its virtual health capabilities. During the COVID-19 epidemic the company launched its Tia Virtual Care program, which offered coronavirus screenings and antibody tests. It also had a feature for the remote monitoring of patients. 

Witte said that the changing of regulation in telemedicine reimbursement allowed for virtual care to be reimbursed by commercial payers enabling this service. 

MARKET SNAPSHOT

In recent years we’ve seen a rise in the hybrid care model, perhaps most notable is One Medical, which went public in January. 

Another in this space is Kindbody, which also focuses on health for women. It raised $4.5 million from GV in December, bringing their total investment pot to $32 million. This company also combines face-face visits with a virtual care component. However, Kindbody focuses more on fertility by means of egg freezing, IVF and wellness care.

Advantia is another tech enabled women’s health startup, which has recently scored $45 million. The system puts OB-GYN care at the center of its practice, but then creates a network of support, including primary care, mental health and lab-testing services.