In the run-up to WellDoc’s commercial launch of its mobile health prescription app for Type 2 diabetes, it has focused exclusively on angel investors for fundraising. In a shift from that strategy, it has attracted investment from two institutional investors in a $20 million strategic financing deal, according to a company statement. It tapped Merck’s investment arm and venture capital firm Windham Venture Partners for the fresh capital.
This investment will help WellDoc commercialize BlueStar nationwide, according to the statement.
BlueStar includes a medication adherence component, real-time transmission, and stores patients’ blood-glucose levels. It is designed to give physicians a better understanding of their patients’ condition beyond in-person visits. The company model involves doctors prescribing the app — a move that many envision as the future of mobile health, but which seems a long way off from mainstream practice for the majority of mobile health tools.
Merck Global Health Innovation Fund is considered to be one of the largest institutional investors in digital health, according to a Rock Health report this year. Last year it invested in four digital health companies including Medivo, Aviir and PatientSafe Solutions. A mobile health workflow tool, Patient Safe Solutions’ platform is designed to help nurses coordinate patient care with other medical staff, collect bedside patient information and check patients’ drug prescriptions. Medivo uses a cloud-based platform with the goal of improving patient-physician communication and making it easier for patients to communicate with labs.
Windham Venture Partners’ digital health investments have focused on Blueprint Health, an accelerator for healthcare startups.
