Tyto Care has raised $50 million in its latest funding round as interest in virtual care solutions grows amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company makes an at-home medical exam and telehealth device kit. The funding round, co-led by Insight Partners, Olive Tree Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures LLC, brings the company’s total funding to more than$105 million.
Previous investors including Orbimed, Echo Health, Qure and Teuza also participated in the oversubscribed funding round.
The funding will allow Tyto Care to continue to expand commercialization throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia as well as to introduce new product capabilities including artificial intelligence- and machine learning-based home diagnostics solutions, company officials said.
In the wake of COVID-19, health systems and hospitals are expanding their use of telehealth and remote monitoring technologies to treat infected patients and help stem the spread of COVID-19.
"Since the start of the crisis, we’ve seen an increase in demand from both consumers and health systems," said Dedi Gilad, CEO and co-founder of Tyto Care.
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"In the U.S., Avera Health is supplying senior living facilities with the solution to keep the at-risk population safe and Novant Health is advising all patients to use virtual visits to avoid clinics. Nearly all hospitals in Israel, including the renowned Sheba Medical Center, are currently working with Tyto Care to examine patients in their quarantined wards, as well as to monitor patients in isolation at home," Gilad said.
Many health systems are partnering with digital health companies to remotely monitor patients. Washington-based Providence St. Joseph Health is working with Xealth, a digital prescribing platform, and Twistle to quickly deploy remote monitoring technology for more than 700 COVID-19 patients.
Tyto Care was co-founded by Gilad and Ofer Tzadik in Israel in 2012 and now has U.S. headquarters in New York City.
The company offers a handheld examination device with attachments that can examine the heart, lungs, skin, ears, throat and abdomen as well as measure body temperature to enable remote diagnosis of acute care situations like ear infections, sore throats, fever, colds and flu, allergies, stomachaches, upper respiratory infections and rashes.
Following the at-home medical exams, users can then send the captured exam information to a primary care provider for diagnosis through a telehealth platform.
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Last year, consumer electronics giant Best Buy struck a retail partnership with Tyto Care, reiterating the retailer's interest in the healthcare space.
Tyto Care officials said the company has seen rapid global telehealth adoption with threefold growth in 2019. The startup is working with hundreds of hospitals and over 100 health organizations including health systems, payers and strategic partners, primarily in North America, Europe and Israel.
The company performed over 200,000 telehealth visits in 2019.
Tyto Care's at-home solution made TIME's list of the 100 best inventions of 2019.
The company's solution enables remote medical exams, which help protect providers and avoid exposure during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also enables consumers to receive care without entering medical facilities, preventing the spread of the virus and significantly reducing the increased burden on already overworked health organizations, the company said.
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To meet the increased demand, Tyto Care is currently expediting production to fulfill three times more devices than originally forecast for the coming quarters, according to executives.
"Over the past two years, Tyto Care has increased momentum faster than ever before and is playing a leading role in changing how people receive healthcare. Telehealth is heeding the call of the COVID-19 pandemic and we are proud that our unique solution is aiding health systems and consumers around the world in the fight against the virus,” Gilad said.
Adoption of telehealth is at an all-time high, noted Jeff Horing, co-founder and managing director at Insight Partners. He added that Tyto Care offers the only solution on the market with diagnostic capabilities that can deliver clinic-quality remote care.