Cecelia Health, a virtual diabetes and chronic disease management startup, has raised $13 million in Series B funding. Rittenhouse Ventures and Endo Investors co-led the round, which also saw participation from Boston Millennia Partners, SustainVC, G100 Capital and others.

WHAT IT DOES

The company was initially founded as Fit4D, and focused on access to certified diabetes educators (CDE) for scalable one-on-one coaching. It rebranded itself as Cecelia Health in January 2019 (after the CDE who CEO and founder David Weingard said inspired him to start the company). It expanded its focus beyond diabetes and into additional chronic conditions.

The company partners with health plans, self-insured employers, medical device companies and Pharma organizations to develop and deliver virtual coaching that supports disease management and treatment adherence. Each patient receives a personalized management plan, while the clinical coaches themselves are supported by a technology platform that helps track patient progress, highlights red flags and encourages best practices.

The company said it has logged more than 1 million remote patient interactions, and like other virtual care providers is seeing increased demand following COVID-19. Just a week ago, it announced its role in a $5 million grant awarded to the Jaeb Center for Health Research Foundation from the Helmsley Charitable Trust to evaluate a Cecelia Health-developed virtual specialty clinic model.

WHAT IT'S FOR

The company said that it would be using the funds to scale and accelerate market adoption of its virtual coaching and telemedicine services.

“The market opportunity and demand for Cecelia Health’s telehealth solutions has grown exponentially since the onset of COVID-19 due to our demonstrated track record for significantly improving the health outcomes and quality of life for people living with diabetes and other chronic conditions,” David Weingard, founder and CEO of Cecelia Health, said in a statement.

“The new investment capital from Rittenhouse, Endo, Boston Millennia, SustainVC and G100, and the executive access they will provide to new health plan, pharmaceutical and medical device companies and self-insured employers will enable us to accelerate our mission to transform lives at scale," he said.

MARKET SNAPSHOT

Tech-enabled diabetes and chronic disease coaching comes in a variety of different forms. Among the more prominent names are Onduo, Virta, Livongo and Omada, each of which combine live coaching services with connected monitoring devices and a patient app. The latter two companies in particular have been making noise lately, whether that be through new acquisitions to expand into different disease management spaces or mergers with one of the largest providers of telehealth and virtual care.

ON THE RECORD

“We’re eager to start connecting Cecelia Health with healthcare organizations in our network as they continue to change the landscape of chronic condition management," David Niles, president of G100 Capital, said in a statement. "Our investment in Cecelia Health is driven by our confidence in its team and its proven track record of delivering superior patient outcomes, and we believe this new capital will enable them to have a significant impact on the healthcare industry at large.”