Startup H1 developed a massive digital professional database and data analytics platform that connects healthcare professionals and life science companies. It basically serves as a LinkedIn for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.
The company just picked up $100 million in a series C round to expand its data and network as well as its product development and hiring, with a goal to make H1 the core global healthcare network for every medical professional and organization in the world, according to the company.
Altimeter Capital led the round joined by new investors Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Flex Capital, with participation from existing investors IVP, Menlo Ventures, Transformation Capital, Lux Capital and LeadEdge.
“H1 has amassed a treasure trove of data, seeking to help healthcare organizations make better, more informed and actionable decisions—data that we believe has become a must-have in today’s fast-changing healthcare environment,” said Pauline Yang, partner at Altimeter Capital, in a statement. “We’re excited to back such an innovative company that’s helping fulfill a large and urgent market need.”
The New York City-based health technology company experienced explosive growth in 2020 and raised $58 million in December 2020, co-led by growth-stage investment firm IVP and Menlo Ventures. H1 has raised $171 million to date.
RELATED: Health tech startup H1 lands $58M series B to build out 'LinkedIn for healthcare'
Ariel Katz and Ian Sax founded H1 in 2017 based on the idea of developing a platform to connect healthcare professionals to help pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies develop drugs and devices.
H1's platform provides comprehensive, in-depth profiles of more than 10 million healthcare professionals and 16,000 institutions in 84 countries, all of which are kept up to date weekly.
These data—regularly kept up to date by the company’s data team and other physician users—can give life science companies seeking out key opinion leaders or potential clinical trial sites information on a provider’s research portfolio, patient mix, social media activity and more. The company’s platform helps life sciences companies, hospitals, academic medical centers and health systems connect with providers, find clinical research, locate industry experts and benchmark their organizations.
Seven of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in the world and several leading academic medical centers (Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania and others) are now H1 customers. In 2021 to date, the company’s annual recurring revenue has grown by over 250% as the appetite for health data continued to accelerate and the network effect took hold, the company reported.
“We’ve created a flywheel that spins faster the more healthcare professionals and industry partners engage with our platform and network,” said Ariel Katz, co-founder and CEO of H1. “No other company can match the volume and quality of global healthcare data H1 has, and as a result no one can match the insights we surface. The next phase of our growth will be focused on helping healthcare organizations harness our network for better decision making.”
Katz attributes H1's rapid growth to the global reach of the company's platform. "You can find a top healthcare professional in Tokyo, Sydney, Ottawa, Mexico City or New York City. We have a global reach and there is a huge need for that."
Twenty years ago, it was too cost-prohibitive to build a platform like H1, Katz said.
He credits several key regulatory changes that helped open up healthcare data, including policy changes from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the FDA through ClinicalTrials.gov.
“Data has emerged as the fuel for every aspect of healthcare, from clinical research to diagnostics to clinical care,” said Katz. “H1 wants to be the single source of truth for that data, worldwide.”
H1 services include Explorer, a comprehensive platform of healthcare professionals that enables professionals to claim and update their profiles to use as their digital CV, connect with industry influencers and access research, speaking and clinical trial opportunities.
RELATED: H1 acquires Carevoyance to sell its 'LinkedIn for healthcare' platform to medical device customers
The company's HCP Universe enables healthcare organizations to identify and engage healthcare providers from advisory board members to treatment specialists, digital opinion leaders and more.
Another service, Trial Landscape, provides a global platform to understand principal investigator profiles and clinical trial sites for access expansion to therapeutic options for patients. Trial Landscape also helps healthcare organizations comply with new FDA guidelines related to physician and patient diversity in clinical trials.
In August, H1 acquired Portland, Oregon-based Carevoyance to fuel a push into the medical device space.
There are also signs that demand and investments into medical device market intelligence are ramping up, Katz told Fierce Healthcare back in August. AcuityMD, a competitor of Carevoyance, recently raised $7 million from investors at the same time more established names like Definitive Healthcare ramp up their focus in the medical device segment, he said.
“The money into medical devices and paying for data is growing like crazy; a need for something like Carevoyance and H1 is growing like crazy,” he told Fierce Healthcare. “Big pharma, biotech have always been … very data-heavy businesses. Device is starting to trend into that … and so we see this market [as] really early, and we want to push it forward."