In this episode of Health Tech Deals, Jess is back! Where was she? Out in the wilds in Arizona, hiking in mountains. A big shoutout to Ian Morrison for filling in. Some recent deals: Omada Health raises $129 million; Somatus raises $325 million; Qventus raises $50 million; Story Health raises $22.6 million; and Medibuddy raises $125 million.

TRANSCRIPT

Matthew Holt:

Hang on. You’re not Ian Morrison.

Jessica DaMassa:

I’m not.

Jessica DaMassa:

He let me come back.

Matthew Holt:

Hang on, look. And we’re together.

Jessica DaMassa:

We’re together. I went from being completely away and replaced, to being right next to you.

Jessica DaMassa:

It’s the March 1st episode of Health Tech Deals.

Matthew Holt:

Okay. Jessica, Jessica, where have you been?

Jessica DaMassa:

Out in the wilds of Arizona.

Matthew Holt:

You were lost and then last week we, you were still lost?

Jessica DaMassa:

Yeah, I was lost, last week. That was when I was lost in Arizona.

Matthew Holt:

I was pretty lost, too. And that was the week before you were lost.

Jessica DaMassa:

Hit some fantastic dive bars, hung out.

Matthew Holt:

I thought you were hiking in mountains.

Jessica DaMassa:

Yeah. That too.

Matthew Holt:

You were drinking in dive bars. Yes. I was mostly sick in Tahoe, so.

Jessica DaMassa:

I see.

Matthew Holt:

Yeah. So.

Jessica DaMassa:

All right. We missed hundreds of billions of dollars of funding deals. So we should probably jump to it. But hey, before we do, just big shout out and thank you to Ian Morrison for filling in.

Jessica DaMassa:

First ever replacement Jessica.

Matthew Holt:

I know. Still, well, I guess we should start with the ones we missed.

Jessica DaMassa:

Let’s go.

Matthew Holt:

All right.

Jessica DaMassa:

Couldn’t believe this, when this happened last week. Stopped me right in my tracks. Omada Health gets 129 million. Brings their total up to a whopping 385m. This is a Series E. I was surprised they got this much money.

Matthew Holt:

So I don’t know. Sean and the guys there, have they missed the window, right? Because this is a big round. It’s about 500,000 patients. They have increased the number of people they’ve got, a number, not just of people, on the system but they are doing more than just diabetes prevention to about 32%. So it’s not just about diabetes prevention play, but it’s still a way behind. And right now they say Livongo is going to be marked down by TelaDoc, so I’m not sure how big it’s going to be. But, did they miss the window? We’ll find out.

Jessica DaMassa:

We’ll see. All right, one company that’s not missing the window, Somatus gets 325 million. This is in chronic kidney care. Brings their total up to 500 million.

Matthew Holt:

Wow, we’re trying to figure out who’s going to split out from the pack here with Somatus and Cricket Health and a bunch of others This looks like Somatus is doing it. They say they have 120,000 patients on the system, over 1,300 employees. So what I’m not quite sure about is, how much they’re going to be doing more dialysis–They’re talking about doing more home dialysis– compared to how much in prevention. But patients definitely need better experience there because dialysis is miserable.

Jessica DaMassa:

All right. Hospital AI, just in time for VIVE next week, 50 million goes to Qventus brings their total up to 97.

Matthew Holt:

Yeah. This is a round from Thomas Lee, the private equity guys, Mudit Garg & his team there have figured out this way to do internal AI stuff that improves hospital operations. Interesting company, helping out hospitals to do better because they need to do better.

Jessica DaMassa:

All right, what about Story Health? They get 22.6 million, brings your total of 27. This is their B round.

Matthew Holt:

Yeah. This is one doing heart failure management. There are so many of these companies doing different types of heart disease, heart failure management. Not to mention that Livongo and others are also doing it. I’m not quite sure what this one means. Ex Verily team. Hopefully I’ll figure it out one day

Jessica DaMassa:

MediBuddy. What a cute name, 125 million brings your total up to 192. They’re based out of India.

Matthew Holt:

Yeah. This is one of those, everything everyone wanted to do about digital health, including they’ve got their own clinics, but they’ve also got telehealth, and they’ve got labs, they’ve got this, that, and the other. It’s everything online, new services, in India. 125 million sounds like a lot for Indian company, because that puts their valuation up pretty high. But I understand India’s got a lot of people, big market.

Jessica DaMassa:

Yeah.

Matthew Holt:

Who knows?

Jessica DaMassa:

Who knows? We’ll see.

Matthew Holt:

There’s clearly still, even though we joke about digital health and it’s happening here and everyone this week saying, “Oh, telehealth is now down again because it’s not really happening and blah, blah, blah.” There’s still a massive transformation to the healthcare system going on out there. And slowly, steadily, it’s picking up in other countries.

Jessica DaMassa:

I’m excited to go talk to people at VIVE. Get that hospital crowd, find out what’s really going on in there with the virtual care, and the remote monitoring, and the Extension to the home.

Matthew Holt:

If you look on TCB yesterday, I did an interview with the b.well Connected Health, which is selling a bit like Seqster OK not like Seqster

Jessica DaMassa:

No, not like – Seqster

Matthew Holt:

Who knows what the hell-

Jessica DaMassa:

I got Ardy (from Seqster) closer than he’s ever been before, though.

Matthew Holt:

Which explains what it is, maybe.

Matthew Holt:

Anyway. But the upshot is that they are providing a digital front door, appointment booking connection, whatever, full consumer system to MedStar Health, which is one of the big hospital systems in DC. There’re going to be a ton of people at Vive trying to figure out how to sell this digital stuff to hospitals, to get the hospital, like Qventus in this one, to get the hospitals up the curve of being slightly more efficient and slightly more user friendly. Not something the hospitals are very good at. They’re very good at building new hospital wings.

Jessica DaMassa:

They are.

Matthew Holt:

British Patel is doing a whole thing about innovation hospitals at VIVE. He says, “Three hours. Come and see.” I said, “If you find three hours worth, you’re doing well.” But I was being cynical. But I did find him three, very quickly while he was castigating me, I found three examples of hospitals spending a billion dollars plus on building new hospital buildings.

Jessica DaMassa:

Yeah.

Matthew Holt:

They’re still good at that.

Jessica DaMassa:

No, omnichannel. Remember that was the word from health. I want to hear about the omnichannel strategy of VIVE. That’s what I’m going for.

Matthew Holt:

A billion dollars to the building, 25 cents to the chat bot.

Jessica DaMassa:

Whatever. We’ll see. Yeah. If you’re headed to VIVE, let us know. I’m over there @JessDamassa and he is @BoltyBoy on Twitter. You can find us there. Are you going to be publishing a party list? Usually you publish a party list.

Matthew Holt:

Yeah, there’s one on Monday night, which I invited you to already.

Jessica DaMassa:

Yes. I’m the party list.

Matthew Holt:

And M_disrupt who Should be putting on a good party.

Jessica DaMassa:

Well, yeah, not everybody’s invited.

Matthew Holt:

Given all the money I gave them… Ooh, hang on.

Jessica DaMassa:

All right. Well find us there. And to never miss an episode of Health Tech Deals, subscribe for the email newsletter over there at thehealthcareblog.com. You’ll get these episodes and all the content from the week delivered directly into your inbox. Whenever we feel like sending that sucker out.

Matthew Holt:

It’ll be ramping up soon because

Jessica DaMassa:

Ramping up.

Matthew Holt:

We didnt have a lot of content last week, because you were off.

Jessica DaMassa:

No, everybody was off. We’re a mess. We’re a mess.But whatever. We’ve regrouped, we’re coming back stronger and better than ever.

Matthew Holt:

We’ll see many of you at VIVE, looking forward to see you.

Jessica DaMassa:

Yeah, can’t wait. We’ll talk to you guys soon. Take care.