New York-based startup Ro, previously known as Roman, has raised $88 million in series A funding as it branches out from its initial focus on erectile dysfunction into smoking cessation.
The funding round was led by FirstMark Capital and includes participation by SingalFire, Initialized Capital, General Catalyst and Slow Ventures. The company has raised a total of more than $91 million.
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When Ro launched in 2017, the company offered a $15 telemedicine service where patients could meet with a doctor who would be able to prescribe Viagra, Cialis or other ED medication.
The company, which doesn’t accept insurance, sells direct-to-consumer, and handles the diagnosis, prescription, delivery and continued care for the condition.
Ro’s business model stands in contrast to many other telemedicine or on-demand care delivery startups like Doctor on Demand, Accolade and HealthTap which have largely started to focus their business efforts on enterprise customers.
According to a blog post from CEO Zachariah Reitano, the company’s expanded to smoking after a number of patients looked to understand and prevent the root cause of their ED, which in many cases was tobacco use.
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So the company decided to start a new vertical called Zero tackling the issue and dropped “men” from their name to widen the potential customer base to women.
“People who smoke know how bad it is. They don’t need another ad telling them they’re going to die. No one is going to be successfully shamed into quitting an addiction. They need someone to meet them at eye level and just be there when they’re ready,” Reitano wrote in the blog post.
The new smoking cessation package includes prescription medication like bupropion, nicotine gum and as well as an app to track progress and consult a physician. The initial cost for the physician consult remains $15, with an additional monthly $129 charge for the adjoining services.
It’s no secret that tobacco use is a major public health issue. According to the CDC smoking causes about one in every five deaths in the United States and smokers on average die 10 years earlier than non smokers.
Ro isn’t the only company attacking the problem. San Francisco Bay Area-based Chrono Therapeutics has raised more than $80 million to help people quit smoking and startups Adiquit and Quit Genius both launched earlier this year focused on smoking cessation.
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