Thyme Care, a value-based cancer care company, has secured $95 million in Series C funding, which it will use to grow its business, the company announced Tuesday.
Nashville, Tennessee-based Thyme Care, founded in 2020, partners with health plans, employers and risk-bearing providers in 31 states to support patients battling cancer. It offers care navigation services, technology and data insights and therapeutic interventions. The company helps patients understand their diagnosis, find a cancer doctor and receive clinical care between appointments. Patients also gain access to a team of providers, nurses and resource specialists. Thyme Care’s services are accessible via phone, text, email and video.
The $95 million capital raise includes $55 million in equity funding from Concord Health Partners, CVS Health Ventures, Town Hall Ventures, a16z Bio + Health, AlleyCorp, Echo Health Ventures, Frist Cressey Ventures and Foresite Capital. Banc of California is providing $40 million in debt financing. In total, Thyme Care has raised $178 million.
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Concord Health Partners invested in Thyme Care for its ability to improve patient care and reduce costs.
“Thyme Care’s ability to enhance patient outcomes and reduce the total cost of care is directly aligned with our mission at Concord to support best-in-class companies with solutions that improve quality, increase access, and reduce cost of care,” said James Olsen, founder and managing partner at Concord, in a statement. “Their provider-led interventions targeting ballooning oncologic drug spend and acute care utilization highlight their unique approach to system-wide affordability, and their deep partnerships in cancer care mark their proven success.”
The financing will help Thyme Care scale its business through new services and more partnerships with risk-bearing entities, said Robin Shah, Thyme Care co-founder and CEO. Thyme Care currently manages over half a billion dollars in medical spend through its risk-based contracts and anticipates tripling that amount within the next year. The company has also doubled its oncology partnerships in the last six months and intends to expand nationwide by securing new contracts with health plans, employers and primary care groups that bear financial risk.
“Given the rapidness of our growth, it’s always good to have an amount of capital to support that growth so that we aren’t in a position to not be able to deliver successfully for our partners. So it’s all about investing in that partnership ahead of going live,” Shah said in an interview.
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There is a need for more cancer care support: spending on cancer medicines is anticipated to reach $375 billion globally by 2027 from $196 billion in 2022. In addition, while all populations are affected by cancer, patients with socioeconomic barriers particularly struggle to access and afford care.
Thyme Care’s ultimate goal is to “help as many cancer patients as possible,” Shah said.
“This fundraise, as well as our prior fundraise has all been around setting up the company to be able to expand and grow and help more people. … And this fundraise will allow us to attract more great talent to help more people across the country and ultimately continue to expand the model that we started building four years ago,” Shah stated.
Other companies that provide cancer care support include OncoveryCare and Maia Oncology.
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