Telehealth giant Amwell raised $194 million in funding. It plans to reinvest the funds into its technology and telehealth services.
The Boston-based company had begun raising the funds prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, but the resulting surge in telehealth visits has dramatically changed the healthcare landscape.
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Allianz X, the investment arm of German insurance company Allianz, invested in AmWell again after leading a funding round in 2018. Drugmaker Takeda also joined as an investor. The round would add to the $500 million in funding that Amwell has previously raised, according to data from Crunchbase.
“Takeda is investing in digital transformation across our business and building key technology partnerships,” Takeda Chief Digital and Information Officer Karl Hick said in a news release. “Patient journeys will be transformed through new settings of care as we emerge from Covid-19. Amwell has developed a highly scalable and agile technology platform that we believe can directly improve patient access and outcomes.”
Amwell and its peers have seen telehealth visits skyrocket since the Covid-19 pandemic started. Forced to cancel the majority of their in-person appointments, many health systems have also turned to telehealth to keep bringing in patients.
Amwell said it had been seeing up to 45,000 visits per day since the Covid-19 pandemic started. Its visits are up by more than 1000% year-over-year in some areas, the company said in an emailed statement.
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Part of that demand was chalked up to interest in Covid-19 assessments, but Amwell said it had also seen an increase in scheduled visits, with providers checking in on patients for their regular health needs.
For some context, competitor Teladoc said it saw its total visits double to 2 million during the first quarter, and MDLive said it saw roughly 20,000 new user registrations per day during the month of March.
Loosened regulatory requirements have also fueled the growth of telehealth, with Medicare allowing visits to take place inside the home, and commercial insurers reimbursing for more telehealth visits. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has hinted that it is considering keeping some of the changes after the pandemic ends, though it hasn’t indicated which ones yet.
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