Fundings, acquisitions, and a SPAC-tacular end to 2020
With the COVID-19 death toll rapidly approaching 500,000 and an election that’s somehow not over, there more darkness than anyone anticipated as we roll into 2021. Fortunately, however, the SPAC-tacular Agetech activity has been overpowering my sadness and getting me excited to see what the next day brings. Read on to find out more, and as always if you have feedback or a funding update please reach out or leave a comment.
Highlights
🎉 The exits keep on coming: PointClickCare acquired Collective Medical for $650m
Yep, that’s right, a $650m Agetech exit; and since Collective Medical was last valued at $170m it represents an exciting exit for the company, the industry, and its investors. Even more exciting is the acquisition spree that PointClickCare has been on over the past two years. In May the company acquired Co-Pilot, an analytics solution developed by Consonus Healthcare, and in March of last year they acquired QuickMAR, a medical management tool for long-term and post-acute care. The lack of large acquisitions in the Agetech market has been one of the things holding back more investment, so it’s exciting to see those flood gates opening.
It also signifies that the shift to value-based care has fully arrived. The value-proposition of the acquisition is that the product combination will prevent individuals from slipping through the cracks. Now that health systems are penalized when patients are readmitted to the hospital after discharge, those crack slipping patients are costly. "[Together] we can stitch all those care settings together, much more seamlessly" - Chris Klomp, CEO Collective Medical.
If you want to know more about stitching care settings together, click here.
🎉 In the fight for prescriptions, UnitedHealth acquired Pillpack competitor DivvyDose for $300m
It seems like everyone’s trying to get into the pharmacy game these days. It started back in 2018 when Amazon surprised many by outbidding Walmart to acquire Pillpack for a whopping $1b, sending a strong signal that they’re coming to disrupt healthcare. Aetna quickly jumped into gear and combined with CVS to the tune of a $70b merger; and not wanting to be left out Walmart scooped up CareZone just a few months ago. Now we have another major insurer, UnitedHealth, picking up an online pharmacy of their own.
A big reason behind the acquisitions is to obtain the loyal base of customers that use these services, but it’s not the only one. For retailers like Amazon and Walmart, it’s a faster way to enter $300 billion pharmacy market than attempting to build and acquire regulatory approval from scratch. For UnitedHealth and the other smart incumbents, it’s a way to fight back. By being able to offer the same services as the retailers they’re able to keep their customers entirely within their own ecosystem, removing reasons for them to look elsewhere.
One of the most interesting aspects of this deal is that DivvyDose hadn’t raised a dime from venture capital or private equity funds. This used to be the norm for Agetech companies as few if any funds were willing to bet on the field, but is fortunately becoming increasingly rare.
For more on the acquisition, click here.
Agetech is SPAC-tacular
Everyone from Shaquille O'Neal to Playboy seems to be creating SPACs these days. Given how COVID-19 has highlighted so many needs and opportunities in helping older adults, it’s no wonder that Agetech is seeing so much SPAC-tivity:
- Immediately after announcing the $18.5b acquisition by Teladoc, Livongo execs decided to create a $500m SPAC (link)
- Clover Health, the Medicare Advantage provider founded in 2014, got SPAC’d in a deal worth $3.7b (link)
- Hims & Hers, which got its start by helping men with erectile dysfunction and hair loss, merged with a SPAC that now values the company at $1.6b (link)
- Not to be outdone, competitor Ro is reportedly attempting to do the same (link)
- UpHealth and Cloudbreak got SPAC-kled together to create a $1.35b company that claims to be one of the only "profitable, publicly-traded, comprehensive global digital healthcare companies." Right… (link)
- Robert Burke, the founder of UnitedHealth, is creating the Senior Connect Acquisition Corp - a $300m SPAC to acquire businesses serving seniors (link)
In other news…
🎉 Eargo soared 87% in it’s first trading day (link)
Honor raised a $140m series C (link)
Primetime Partners, the new VC firm led by Thrive Global’s Abby Levy and Greycroft’s Alan Patricof, raised $32m to invest in Agetech opportunities (link)
Pillar Life, initially focused on free student loan debt relief, raised a $1.5m seed extension from Kleiner Perkins to pivot into a caregiver support platform that stores loved ones’ important documents (link)
GetSetUp, a peer-to-peer online learning platform for older adults, raised $10m to accelerate growth and development (link)
Siren, maker of smart socks to detect and prevent ulcers, added $9m to its series B to grow its team and develop a new product that doesn’t require wifi or a smartphone (link)
Commure, which is developing an “app-store like” mechanism for building, distributing and deploying software for the health care community, raised $3.29m (link)
Lark Health, the digital chronic care management tool, scooped up $55 million in its series C round to expand beyond it’s partnership with Anthem into other insurance and telehealth providers (link)
Cerebral, a membership-based virtual mental health service, raised a $35m series A to expand into all 50 states (link)
Whisper, a subscription-based hearing aid maker, emerged from stealth and raised a $35m series B (link)
eVisit, a telehealth SaaS provider for medical practices, raised a $14m series A to expand beyond its 100 current clients (link)
Nice Healthcare, a primary care telehealth service for SMBs, raised a $5 million seed round to expand from five states into a total of 20 (link)
SnapNurse, the on-demand healthcare staffing platform, raised $15m to continue to build on its explosive growth in 2020 which saw revenue jump from $2m to $200m (link)
Lantern, a platform for end-of-life planning, raised a $1.4m seed round (link)
MedArrive, another medical home-visit startup led by ex-head of Uber Health Dan Trigub, raised $4.5m to begin operations in Florida (link)
Virta, a type-II diabetes management platform, raised a $65m series D at a valuation of over $1.1b to continue its expansion and accelerate R&D of evidence-based, non-pharmaceutical therapies for other costly metabolic conditions (link)
Verifiable, a company which automates healthcare credential verification, raised a $3m seed round (link)
Sidekick Health, makers of a gamified digital therapeutics platform for chronic disease management, raised a $20m series A to enter the US market (link)
Homethrive, the family caregiver help and support platform, announced an $18m series A to continue expanding into new health plans and self-insured employers (link)
Curve Health, a platform that helps SNFs and health systems provide better care and reduce readmissions, raised a $6m seed round to hire a new CEO and accelerate its sales (link)
CoreCare, an AI product that improves revenue by reducing medical billing errors, raised a $3m seed round to continue its rapid expansion (link)
Troy Medicare, a technology-enabled Medicare Advantage plan designed to empower independent pharmacies, raised a $10m series B from AXA to expand beyond North Carolina (link)
Nymbl Science, makers of a fall prevention digital therapeutic, raised a $4m series A to continue scaling internationally (link)
OutSense, creators of a clip-on toilet bowl sensor to detect life-threatening diseases, raised a $2.2m series A to commercialize the device and obtain FDA clearance (link)
K Health, the AI-powered flat-fee telemedicine service, raised $42m series D to keep up with its explosive, 10,000+ new users per day, growth (link)
ClosedLoop.ai, the company working to identify the 5% of individuals that account for over 50% of healthcare spending before they even walk into the doctor’s office, raised an $11m series A to continue improving its technology (link)
Coviu, an Australia-based telehealth startup, raised A$6m to fuel its explosive growth (link)
AceAge, maker of a smart pill dispenser, raised a CAD$5m series A from strategic partner CareRx (link)
Neuroglee, a Singapore-based startup developing a digital therapeutic for early-stage dementia, raised a $2.3m seed round to begin clinical trials (link)
Olive, the developer of an artificial intelligence workforce for the health care industry, raised $225.5m to develop a new AI co-worker and product to help hospitals get paid faster from insurance claims (link)
Socially Determined, which helps health care organizations assess and act on SDoH health, raised an additional $3.15 million in debt (link)
NextStep, an online CNA training and placement program that guarantees employment, raised a $3m bridge (link)
CircleLink Health, a product for physicians to outsource chronic care management, raised $2.2m (link)
Kraydel, an Irish startup which connects seniors with their network via their TV, is close to its £1.35m crowdfunding goal (link)
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