Beyond remote visits for fevers and sore throats, patients are seeking out virtual specialty care during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Startup Summus Global, which connects patients with medical specialists, has seen steady strong growth. The New York City-based company completed a strategic investment round of $22 million led by Danaher Corporation’s co-founder and executive committee chairman Mitchell Rales and the Glenstone Foundation.
Following a previous series B funding round in 2021 by Sator Grove Holdings, Summus has now raised $50 million to expand its innovative specialty care platform.
Founded in 2015, Summus sells to both employers and large health systems, including academic medical centers.
Comprising more than 4,000 specialists across 50 top hospitals, Summus offers a software-as-a-service platform that serves as a navigator service to connect patients in virtual sessions to specialists. Providers specialize in preventive care, chronic conditions and complex diagnoses. Summus connects patients to specialists in areas such as allergies, child development issues, chronic issues, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and cancer.
Julian Flannery, Summus CEO and co-founder, said the company will use the funding to expand its specialist network domestically and globally and deepen its relationship with top academic medical centers to support them to scale specialist expertise
Summus Global also will focus on enhancing condition-specific, personalized journeys for patients to access the best specialty care.
“We firmly fit into the next generation of virtual care and we believe in the concept of virtual specialty care, that’s where all the complexity and the cost live,” Flannery told Fierce Healthcare. “Virtual care is going to firmly move into the quality spectrum with players driving high-quality interactions and not just transactional healthcare experiences.”
Here's a snapshot of other health tech funding deals of more than $30 million in January:
Healthcare collaboration software maker: TigerConnect nabbed a $300 million growth investment from Vista Equity Partners to build out its health collaboration platform.
Virtual mental health: Lyra Health snagged $235 million in series F funding, sending the health tech unicorn’s valuation to $5.58 billion as the company focuses its efforts on global expansion. Dragoneer led the round and was joined by new investor Salesforce Ventures along with existing investor Coatue.
Prescription delivery: Alto Pharmacy snagged $200 million in a series E funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund as the telehealth pharmacy startup looks to compete with retail giants. Alto has raised over $550 million to date.
Employer-focused health and care platform: Transcarent has landed $200 million in series C funding, bumping the company’s valuation to $1.62 billion. Kinnevik and Human Capital led the series C round, with participation from Ally Bridge Group as well as previous investors including General Catalyst, GreatPoint Ventures, Threshold Ventures and Merck Global Health Innovation Fund. Major health systems like Northwell Health, Intermountain Healthcare and Rush University Medical Center also contributed to the round.
Senior care platform: A Place for Mom, the largest marketplace for senior care services, banked $175 million in growth equity funding. The funding round was led by Insight Partners, with existing investors General Atlantic and Silver Lake participating as well.
Colonoscopy AI: In the past six months, MIT artificial intelligence spinout Iterative Scopes raised $30 million in funding and secured European approval for its software to help spot the signs of colorectal cancer. Now it’s leapfrogged up to a $150 million round to help bring its computer vision programs to U.S. clinicians. The nine-figure series B round was co-led by Insight Partners and Clearlake Capital Group.
Telehealth infrastructure: Wheel, which provides a prebuilt virtual care platform and nationwide clinician network, landed $150 million in series C funding to fuel its growth. The series C round was co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Tiger Global. New investors Coatue and Salesforce Ventures also participated in the round, along with existing investors CRV, Tusk Venture Partners and Silverton Partners.
Medical big data platform: Verana Health’s newly closed series E funding brought in $150 million to expand the company’s technology. The round was co-led by Johnson & Johnson Innovation and Novo Nordisk’s Novo Growth investment arm and included participation from new and existing investors including GV, the Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Casdin Capital, Brook Byers, THVC and Breyer Capital.
Remote patient monitoring: Athelas hit unicorn status after raising $132 million in two consecutive funding rounds that boosted the company's valuation to $1.5 billion. General Catalyst led one of the two funding rounds, while Tribe Capital led the other. Sequoia Capital, YCombinator, Greenoaks, Human Capital and Initialized Capital also contributed funding.
At-home acute care: Medically Home has picked up another $110 million in a funding round headlined by new strategic investors Baxter International and Global Medical Response. Prior backers Mayo Clinic, Kaiser Permanente and healthcare logistics firm Cardinal Health also participated in the funding round.
Augmenting reality for pharma manufacturers: Apprentice.io scored $100 million in a Series C financing round to help manufacturers fortify their supply chains against threats from the spread of the omicron variant. Alkeon Capital led the round with existing investors Silverton Partners, Insight Partners, Pacific Western Bank and others.
Digital mental health: Big Health has locked in a $75 million series C funding round headed by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. New backer ArrowMark Partners participated along with prior investors Octopus Ventures, Gilde Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente Ventures and Morningside Ventures.
Nurse staffing solution: Gale Healthcare Solutions matches nurses with available work shifts and clinched a $60 million dollar growth equity investment from FTV Capital.
Patient acquisition and navigation platform: DexCare, the digital care operating system that was spun out of Providence Health last March, raised $50 million in series B funding for its platform that manages health system capacity and demand. Transformation Capital led the series B round, with participation from Kaiser Permanente, Providence Ventures, Mass General Brigham, Define Ventures, Frist Cressey Ventures and SpringRock Ventures.
Member-based network: Avaneer Health, an interoperable, participant-based network, has clinched $50 million in seed funding by a collective of industry leaders. The first network participants include Aetna, Anthem, Cleveland Clinic, Health Care Service Corporation, the PNC Financial Services Group and Sentara Healthcare.
Tech-enabled community care: Waymark, a startup aiming to scale value-based care in Medicaid, picked up $45 million in series A financing co-led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and New Enterprise Associates. Lux Capital and leading angel investors also participated in the round.
Medicare advisory firm: Chapter landed $42 million in a series B funding round, led by Addition, along with participants Narya Capital, Susa Ventures, Maverick Ventures, XYZ Venture Capital, Core Innovation Capital and Health2047 Capital Partners.
Financial assistant tool: Atlas Health, an AI-powered, patient-centered financial-navigator company, has announced a $40 million series A funding round. The round was led by Felicis Ventures with participation from GreatPoint Ventures, Tribe Capital, Global Founders Capital and MBX Capital.
In-hospital patient monitoring technology: VitalConnect, maker of biosensors for in-hospital and remote patient monitoring, closed a $39 million series E round led by EW Healthcare Partners.
Voice-enabled clinical documentation: DeepScribe snagged $30 million led by Nina Achadjian at Index Ventures, with participation from Alex Wang, CEO of Scale.ai; Dylan Field, CEO of Figma; and existing investors Bee Partners, Stage 2 Capital and 1984 Ventures. The platform uses AI to decrease the time doctors have to spend on digitizing their notes while producing more accurate results.
Smart toilet seat: In one of the more apt examples of bringing medtech into the home and meeting patients on their terms, the developer of a smart toilet seat has raised $30 million to pursue an FDA clearance. The financing was led by Morningside, with additional backing from Matrix Partners and the company’s series A investors General Catalyst and Outsiders Fund, Fierce Medtech reports.