Caremerge, makers of a care coordination software for seniors in assisted living facilities, raised $4 million in its first institutional round of funding. Cambia Health Solutions led the round and Generator Ventures, GE Ventures, Arsenal Venture Partners and the Ziegler-LinkAge Longevity Fund also contributed. Caremerge previously raised $2 million from angel investors in July 2013 and has participated in several accelerators including StartUp Health's collaboration with GE and eldercare-specific accelerator Aging 2.0.
“These new partnerships and capital will allow Caremerge to continue to take a leading role in the senior care industry through simple technology; and therefore improving the lives of everyone involved,” Asif Khan, founder and CEO of Caremerge said in a statement.
The software is pitched to senior living facilities as a comprehensive backend software which includes functionality for managing the residents’ events calendar. The information can be accessed via interfaces which are customized separately for staff, physicians, families, and residents, all of whom can access the software via computers or mobile devices. Khan has said in the past that tracking lifestyle is all a part of effective preventative medicine, which the company hopes some day to expand beyond just seniors.
“As you get older, your lifestyle has a lot to do with your wellbeing,” Khan told MobiHealthNews in 2013. “It becomes much more important to have a high quality of life. This is why additional lifestyle information is also being captured in Caremerge. If an orderly goes to a patient and asks ‘Why aren’t you taking this medication?’, a physician can go in and see the trends — he’s not going to as many activities, he’s sleeping more. Then they can say ‘Oh this is why he’s not taking his medication. It’s impacting his lifestyle.'”
Since its last round of funding, Caremerge has worked with a number of partners to improve its offering. The company created an Allscripts app in August 2013 called "ReThink ReAdmissions" designed to improve the communication between hospitals and longterm care facilities to reduce preventable readmissions in those populations. They also signed customers including Signature HealthCARE, a chain of long-term care centers based in Louisville, Kentucky, and senior living community management company Life Care Services. This past August, they teamed up with Aver Informatics to create a program to help assisted living facilities pursue bundled payment initiatives.
Cambia Health Solutions, a Portland, Oregon-based health insurance company, adds Caremerge to a diverse portfolio of digital health companies that it has made investments in over the year. It has previously invested in employee benefits platform Maxwell Health, digital insurance card startup LifeNexus, weight loss startup Retrofit, and its own spin-off company Hubbub Health.
