MedMinder, a Needham, Massachusetts-based company that makes cellular-connected smart pill cases, has raised an additional $500,000 from an undisclosed investor. A longtime player in the connected pillbox space, MedMinder has only raised about $2.3 million in funding to date, all of it from undisclosed private investors.

The new funding will be used to support the company's recent expansion into the mail-order pharmacy space, founder and CEO Eran Shavelsky told MobiHealthNews.

"The mission of the company is to help the elderly and the chronically ill to stay independent at home," Shavelsky said. "... It was a natual step for us to expand the service. Not only to remind [users] to take their medications, not only to provide the peace of mind for the family, but also to help them get their medication and make sure they have the right medication in the right compartment to start with."

With the new pharmacy service, MedMinder will deliver patients' medications in pre-packaged trays that correspond to the compartments in MedMinder's line of smart, cellular-connected pillboxes. Patients will only have to pay the co-pay for the medications, with no extra charge for delivery.

MedMinder has two pillboxes, a non-locking box called Maya and a locking box called John. Both are available with and without a medical alert system that connects the user to an emergency response call center. Medical alert boxes also come with a wearable penant. 

Shavelsky says that the prepackaged trays and the convenience of ordering medications directly from MedMinder should help to further increase users' medication adherence.

"They have the MedMinder pill dispenser at home and we ship to them single-use trays," he said. "The trays have all the medication inside already organizaed with all the labeling. All they have to do is open the device and deposit the medication."

The move into the pharmacy space makes MedMinder a competitor to companies like PillPack, which has raised $62 million in funding since it launched in early 2014.