Artificial intelligence-driven health platform Prosper Medical secured $16 million in seed funding to make concierge medicine more accessible through scaling its AI-powered platform.
FUSE led Prosper Medical’s funding round, with participation from Aurum Partners, Better.vc, Cal Innovation Fund, Fluent, Latitude Capital, Knoll Ventures and Western Technology Investment.
The startup was founded by Ryan McQuaid and James Wantuck, M.D., who previously built PlushCare—one of the nation’s first direct-to-consumer telehealth platforms. PlushCare was acquired by Accolade in a 2021 in a deal valued at $450 million.
“We grew PlushCare to more than a million patient visits a year, and through those millions of interactions, we really learned that there were some problems with just providing access to a great doctor,” Wantuck told Fierce Healthcare.
Prosper Medical aims to bridge that gap.
The membership-based offering is designed to reach more patients across the U.S. and is in-network with many major insurance plans, executives say. Prosper’s platform maintains continuity across each interaction, aggregating data and coordinating care. Patients also have access to Prosper physicians and a Care Concierge team.
Membership has a flat monthly rate of $69, according to its website.
McQuaid, who serves as Prosper’s CEO, told Fierce Healthcare the company isn’t taking a “transactional” approach to care. “We're giving every patient a dedicated primary care provider from somebody that's trained at top 50 U.S. medical schools, has on average 10 years of practicing experience, where they can really build a relationship with that individual,” he said.
Moreover, Wantuck, who also serves as the company’s chief medical officer, said Prosper’s goal is not to replace healthcare professionals with AI.
“We're not looking to use AI to make healthcare cheap and quick, [or] eliminate physicians and other healthcare workers from the workflow,” Wantuck said. “It's really more about making it better because I think all of us have suffered from horrible experiences with the healthcare system.”
McQuaid said Prosper plans to use the funding to expand its physician network, continue building out its AI platform and accelerate growth to “deliver a ‘wow’ patient experience.”
“Likewise, our philosophy is we can't deliver a ‘wow’ patient experience if we're not delivering a ‘wow’ physician experience, and so we'll be investing in both platforms for providers and for patients,” McQuaid said.