New York City startup Voro has raised $2.5 million in seed funding for its “health care social network.” Floodgate led the round, which also included top names from Techstars, Flatiron Health, Tilt, Clover Health, Surion, Teamworthy Ventures, AVG Basecamp Fund, Ride Ventures, OneOncology and others.
WHAT THEY DO
Voro’s platform looks to inform patients’ care decisions by providing them with direct recommendations from their friends, coworkers, or neighbors. After encouraging users to join as a community group or company, the tool allows users to search for care providers by filters like specialty, insurance compatibility and location while surfacing reviews from their peers. Once chosen, a concierge service books the appointment at no cost.
"At Voro, we feel strongly that everyone should have access to medical care they can trust," Tomas Hoyos, cofounder and CEO of Voro, said in a statement. "We want every community to have a safe place to share doctor recommendations and talk about health openly.”
Voro wrote in its announcement that the platform currently has “tens of thousands of users” largely focused within the New York City area.
WHAT IT’S FOR
The startup did not outline any specific uses for its seed funding.
MARKET SNAPSHOT
Online doctor reviews are a sizable concern for most clinicians, and many consumers say they generally find such resources to be reliable. As the number of physician reputation management products on the market continues to grow, there’s an opportunity for a patient-serving platform that can cut through inflated scores.
And the idea of a patient peer network has already seen some success — PatientsLikeMe fostered patient communities for sharing personal experiences and data, and recently was acquired by UnitedHealth Group (although that purchase did ruffle some feathers among the platform’s user base).
ON THE RECORD
"Voro is bringing the power of community and network effects to healthcare and putting consumers first," Mike Maples, partner at Floodgate, said in a statement. "We're excited to see Voro tackle a huge problem with a unique angle to improve healthcare for everyone."
