For patients with chronic conditions, the battle for their own health can’t be won by visiting the doctor a few times a year, according to Omada Health President Wei-Li Shao.
Instead, “the battle against chronic conditions is fought in the vast amount of white space in-between visits when patients are making decisions and taking actions,” he told Fierce Healthcare. “That dictates their near-term and long-term health.”
Omada Health works in that white space, using data-driven personalized care to drive behavioral change. The company just banked $192 million in a series E funding round led by Fidelity, boosting its valuation to over $1 billion, the virtual chronic care management company confirmed to Fierce Healthcare.
The company offers virtual chronic care for diabetes, prediabetes and weight management, hypertension, musculoskeletal conditions and behavioral health issues like anxiety and depression.
Its programs provide virtual support from a personalized care team plus remote monitoring devices like continuous glucose monitors and blood pressure cuffs.
Founded in 2011, the San Francisco-based company now serves more than 1,700 customers and 550,000 members. Most members access Omada Health’s offerings through their employer or health plan, who pay a monthly fee in exchange for Omada’s promise of lower costs and better patient outcomes.
The market for digital chronic care solutions has become increasingly saturated in recent years as emerging remote patient monitoring and complex care startups compete with healthcare provider and payer giants.
Many of these solutions are copycats, Shao said, and few are backed up by the wealth of data Omada Health boasts. The company’s approach is powered by the Omada Insights Lab, its internal division dedicated to leveraging member data to hone interventions.
“We’ve got an amazing brand recognition reputation among health plans and employers … and we think the value proposition we’ve carved out for ourselves is really unique,” Shao said, referencing the company’s focus on using data to drive behavioral change.
More than half of Americans have at least one chronic condition, but, within that pool, most actually have more than one, Shao notes.
The company plans to devote a portion of the capital from the series E round toward its tech platform to facilitate an integrated care experience for patients with multiple chronic conditions.
“It’s not good enough to be able to treat one person for one condition. You’ve got to be able to treat a person, considering all of their circumstances, for multiple conditions,” Shao said. “There’s a significant amount of investment going into integrating that care.”
Much of the funding will go toward expanding the company’s team—Omada is hiring within “every corner” of the organization, Shao said, as the company scales to meet increasing demand—as well as toward research in the Omada Insights Lab.
The average Omada member interacts with the platform more than 30 times a week, Shao said. With hundreds of thousands of members and more than a decade of care, the company has billions of data points to work with, which it can use to generate insights to help personalize each of its members’ care plans.
“There’s a huge technology backbone behind this that we need to continue to grow and invest in, because we know that if we do, we drive better engagement and experience, which drives behavior change, and that causes better outcomes and a lower cost of care,” he said.
Fidelity led the series E round with participation from aMoon as well as existing investors Perceptive Advisors, Wellington Management, Civilization Ventures and others.
Omada also announced new leadership appointments alongside the round such as Taylor Harris as a new board member, Nancy Vitale as chief people officer and Sunil Kayiti as chief technology officer.
“Omada Health’s dedication to health outcomes and mindset-driven care support was a major differentiator that stood out to aMoon in a crowded digital health landscape,” said Tomer Berkovitz, general partner at aMoon, in a statement. “This latest funding round emphasizes our confidence in the Omada team and our strong belief in the company’s platform as a proven solution across multiple chronic conditions.