Funding roundup: Health kiosk-maker raises $30M from Babylon Health

A startup building health kiosks deployed in grocery stores raised funding from an unusual source — another startup. Higi closed a $30 million series B round led by Babylon Health, a London-based startup that has developed a health triage chatbot. Previous investors including 7Wire Ventures, Flare Capital Partners and Jumpstart Capital also participated in the round.

Higi said it has deployed more than 10,000 Smart Health Stations, small kiosks that can provide metrics on pulse, blood pressure and weight. They’re located in grocery stores, drugstores and offices so users can check their numbers.

With the Covid-19 pandemic, Higi has had to temporarily change its approach. Since the Centers for Disease Control recommended against using self-serve blood pressure units during this time, Higi CEO Jeff Bennett said the company switched its stations to provide information about Covid-19 and what resources are available to manage their healthcare during the pandemic.

“For the last several weeks, we have moved our stations into education mode,” he said. “In the first part of the pandemic, we saw significant usage of the platform. Over 1 million people used it.”

As states begin to lift stay-at-home policies, Bennett said Higi would begin to bring its first stations back online.

HIgi also has an app that can sync with fitness tracker data and provide information on preventing and managing health conditions.  The company doesn’t currently facilitate telehealth visits, but hands over patients to telehealth partners, such as Livongo, which offers digital health programs for management of diabetes and hypertension.

Few digital health startups have the capital or time to invest in another startup. There are just a handful of recent examples: Welltok, a startup that helps connect consumers to health resources, acquired text messaging platform Wellpass. WeDoctor, a large online healthcare startup based in China, acquired Australian fertility company Genea.

In this case, the investment could provide a strategic advantage for Babylon, allowing it to gain a bigger foothold in the U.S. market. It plans to bundle together its virtual visits with Higi’s assessment capabilities and reach.

“Higi’s Smart Health Stations are located in thousands of towns across North America, and by integrating Babylon’s digital first healthcare services into Higi’s station experience, we can make the healthcare services that people need that much more accessible and affordable across North America,” Babylon CEO Ali Parsa said in a news release.

Bennett said the partnership would allow Higi to build in a feature that would allow its user to take their health data and connect with a primary care physician virtually. Since Babylon has a presence in the U.K. and Asia, it would also give Higi an opportunity to expand overseas.

“The opportunity we see with Babylon, we can build more closed-loop solutions,” he said. “We’re collecting data on an ongoing basis that can be used to facilitate the appropriate type of care.”

Babylon is currently used by Britain’s National Health System to offer its “GP in Hand” telehealth service. The startup is also flush with cash, after raising a $550 million funding round last year. But Babylon has also seen its fair share of controversy, with some physicians raising questions over the accuracy of Babylon’s its conditions assessment and triage chatbot.

Babylon recently began expanding its footprint in New York, joining the Mount Sinai Health Partners Provider Network. The company is also working with health plans in Missouri, New York and California.

 

Insitro

Amount: $143 million

Headquarters: San Francisco

Insitro, a startup that uses machine learning for drug discovery, raised $143 million in an oversubscribed series B round. Andreesen Horowitz led the funding round, and general partner Vijay Pande will join Insitro’s board of directors. Other new investors included Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), T. Rowe Price Associates, BlackRock, Casdin Capital, HOF Capital and WuXi AppTec’s Corporate Venture Fund.

The startup uses in vitro systems to predict the outcome of human clinical trials. Insitro plans to use the additional funds to develop its technology, generate data at a larger scale and generate predictive models of human disease. The company is currently developing two models for liver and central nervous system diseases, and has a strategic partnership with Gilead.

“In the two years since its inception, insitro has already emerged as a leader in bridging between data science and engineering to transform the landscape of drug discovery,” Pande said in a news release. “They are developing novel approaches that combine tools from cell biology, bioengineering, and data science to generate data at the quality and scale required to apply and expand the power of machine learning. I am excited to work with this incredible team as we realize the next generation of drug discovery and development.”

 

Tia

Amount: $24.28 million

Headquarters: New York

Tia, a women’s health company that includes a health app and a concierge clinic, raised $24.28 million in a series A round led by Threshold Ventures. Since the Covid-19 pandemic started, the company expanded its telehealth offerings, and began offering behavioral health services to its patients.

With the new funding, Tia plans to expand to new markets. It plans to open clinics in two new locations in the next two years, co-founder and CEO Carolyn Witte said in a phone interview. The company also plans to begin offering obstetrics and pregnancy care.

Other backers of the startup include Define Ventures, ACME and Torch Capital.

“I just have more conviction than ever before about where we’re going and what we’re building,” Witte said.

 

Bright.MD

Amount: $16.7 million

Headquarters: Portland, Oregon

Telehealth startup Bright.MD raised $16.7 million in an oversubscribed series C round. Lead investors for the round included B Capital, Seven Peaks Ventures and Concord Health Partners.

Its platform, SmartExam, serves as a digital physician’s assistant, taking in information about patients’ symptoms and routing them to the appropriate care setting.

The company says it can automate 90% of a primary care or urgent care visit, including charting, coding, billing and order entry. Mercy and SCL Health are among its current users, and Bright.MD plans to use the funding to expand its platform to additional health systems.

 

Orbita

Amount: $9 million

Headquarters: Boston

Orbita, a startup that develops voice- and text-based chatbot solutions for healthcare, closed a $9 million series A round. Philips Health Technology Ventures and HealthX Ventures, which focuses on investing in digital health companies, co-led the round. Other participating investors included Cultivation Capital and Newark Venture Partners.

With the Covid-19 pandemic, Orbita saw an influx of requests from new and existing customers. The company released a free Covid-19 chatbot in March, and has since added new capabilities, such as automated health monitoring. Some of its customers include AmWell, Mass General Brigham and Mayo Clinic.

 

Photo credit: Feodora Chiosea, Getty Images