Home-based cancer care startup Reimagine Care scored $25 million in a Series A funding round led by Santé Ventures, Martin Ventures and LRVHealth.

Other investors participating include the CU Healthcare Innovation Fund, City of Hope, McKesson Ventures and Sable Investments.

WHAT IT DOES

The company partners with providers and health plans to coordinate care in the home to avoid unnecessary inpatient visits.

Reimagine clinicians can remotely monitor patients, work with oncologists to determine whether patients need additional services and send home care workers to assist if needed.

WHAT IT'S FOR

Reimagine plans to use the capital to improve and commercialize its platform, launch a virtual care center and hire new members for its care team.

"We're honored to partner with these experienced financial and strategic investors who share our belief that the time is now to move away from the status quo way of delivering cancer care, which hasn't adapted to a virtual, digital world and move towards providing a better experience for the millions of patients who deal with this horrible disease each year," cofounder and CEO Dr. Aaron Gerber said in a statement.

"We're eager to accelerate the commercialization of our tech-enabled services platform to help health systems to provide high-quality, home-centered care, increase profitability and enhance the patient experience, while also differentiating themselves from competitors who fail to take this important leap forward."

MARKET SNAPSHOT

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the use of telehealth and at-home care, with an HHS report finding Medicare visits conducted via telehealth increased sixty-three-fold during the pandemic, from approximately 840,000 in 2019 to 52.7 million in 2020.

Companies are hoping they can push higher-level care into the home as well. Last year, Israeli company Biobeat launched a take-home version of its remote patient monitoring platform, including a continuous vitals monitor, patient app and a cloud-based patient management system.

In 2020, Swedish oncology treatment tech company Elekta announced it would acquire Kaiku Health, which allows patients to track their symptoms and alert their care team with updates. The Kaiku service launched in the U.S. late last year. 

Remote monitoring and analytics company Biofourmis also moved into the cancer space in 2020 with its purchase of Takeda Pharmaceuticals’ Gaido Health, a digital tool that uses remote monitoring, patient surveys and analytics to monitor patients at home.