A little less than a year after it went public, digital health startup Livongo began to pick up traction with users. The company, which makes a platform to manage diabetes and other chronic conditions, nearly doubled its membership in 2019. It also surpassed analysts’ revenue expectations, though the company still is operating at a net loss.
By the end of December, the company had 222,700 members enrolled in its Livongo for Diabetes plan, up 96% from 2018. For Livongo, which charges health plans monthly for every member, this translates directly to its top line.
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Livongo ended the year with 804 clients, selling its solution primarily to employers and health plans. Since December, the company has already launched 424 new clients, a record number, CEO Zane Burke said.
“Livongo finished the year with excellent momentum, exceeding all of our guidance metrics, achieving record signings in the fourth quarter, and expanding our reach to over 30% of Fortune 500 companies,” Livongo CEO Zane Burke said in a news release. “We enter the year well positioned to continue driving rapid growth with our extension into the fully insured health plan market and expanded our strategic partnerships with CVS Health and Express Scripts, positioning us to better serve their health plan and self-insured employer clients.”
The company reported total revenue of $169.9 million, up 148% year-over-year. But Livongo’s net loss also widened to $54.9 million, an increase from $33.4 million in 2018.
Livongo struck several key partnerships last year that it expects will fuel its future growth. It was listed as a preferred provider on Express Scripts’ digital health formulary, the first of its kind and a key step toward reimbursement for digital therapeutics. Livongo expects to see the effects of that toward the end of the year, when companies start looking at their benefit plans.
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At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
“Those are big net positives for 2020 as you look forward,” Burke said in an investor call on Monday.
The company also expanded its partnership with CVS last year to add more conditions, and more recently, struck a partnership with Dexcom, a San Diego-based company that makes continuous glucose monitors. It would allow CGM users, which include type 1 and type 2 diabetes patients, to sync their data on Livongo’s platform.
The company’s stock was valued at $24.80 at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, down slightly from its previous close at $26.70. Livongo’s stock peaked at $28 Tuesday morning, before falling as Nasdaq dropped more than 2% over worries about COVID-19.
Photo credit: Livongo
