Skipping the IPO, Oura spends $625 million to acquire Counsel Health. Obviously Oura, the health monitoring ring company, has some free cash in the bank because their deal to acquire Counsel was announced to close by end of year–about seven weeks away. What Oura adds with the Counsel buy is an app/AI-driven primary care facilitator that combines medical AI with real live doctors. They also add Counsel’s base in enterprise accounts, which will expand Oura from its individual sales base. Oura and Counsel have been partnering since the start of this year. When fully integrated, information from the Oura app will ping Counsel’s medical AI chatbot and then can be forwarded to a Counsel Health doctor for follow up.
At $625 million in cash, it’s one heck of a Happy New Year for Boston-based Counsel’s investors: Andreessen Horowitz, Pear VC, Asymmetric Capital Partners, Google Ventures, Floodgate. They only put in $36 million over two rounds (seed, Series A) of funding since 2024 (Crunchbase). Quick M&A turns like this are highly unusual in this market. It’s a big bet for Oura but their last quarter’s revenue grew 153 percent year over year to $533 million and they claim a 16% margin.
Whether Counsel’s enterprise accounts will support the extra cost for an Oura ring (~$350 plus a $70 yearly subscription) is a legitimate question in pricing. There’s also a Medicare spin. Oura and Counsel will be working together in Medicare’s Part B ACCESS model that started in July. It supports technology-enabled care for chronic conditions, including high blood pressure, chronic MSK pain, and diabetes, for eligible Medicare beneficiaries.
It’s a smart move for Oura. It adds more continuity and completion to their monitoring, creating a full system. That model adds substantial value–before the IPO that will undoubtedly take place in 2027. Perhaps this was the reason why Oura delayed the IPO?
What’s not stated in the lengthy release beyond the anodyne welcoming the Counsel team is hard detail on the future of the Counsel operation and their executive group. Oura is based in San Francisco. Mobihealthnews, MedCity News
XRHealth buys PursueCare, entering the addition treatment area. Acquisition cost was not formally disclosed (see below). XRHealth is a telehealth company that offers virtual reality therapy for mental health and pain management.
PursueCare is a virtual addiction counseling app that targets individuals through health systems and providers. PursueCare also owns three FDA-authorized digital therapeutics, RESET (substance use disorder–SUD), RESET-O (opioid), and RESET-A (alcohol). Here is where it gets interesting. Remember Pear Therapeutics? All three digital therapeutics were part of the Pear bankruptcy ‘estate’. They, along with other Pear assets, were first bought by Pear founder Corey McCann, MD under his company Harvest Care for $2 million, then sold to PursueCare [TTA 31 Oct 2024]. Dr. McCann, now managing partner at T. Rx Capital, is on PursueCare’s board; Harvest Bio is listed as an asset of PursueCare.
Behavioral Health Business put together some XRHealth financials. Crunchbase confirmed a funding round of $2.2 million on 23 October as well as a $43.2 million total funding over 15 (!) early rounds. BHB also sourced from a SEC Form D filing, also on 23 October, that XRHealth, a private company, issued $16.25 million in shares of its common stock to the sellers of PursueCare and Harvest Bio.
XRHealth’s modus operandi is acquisition. Earlier this month, XRHealth acquired Living Brain, a German medical device company that uses extended reality (XR) technology for neurological rehabilitation. In July, XRHealth acquired Swing Therapeutics. Swing Care offers digital therapeutics for chronic pain and fibromyalgia as part of its FDA de novo authorized Stanza program. Again, XR did not announce transaction costs for either acquisition. Mobihealthnews
Charta Health raises $55 million, launches payer platform. The Series B round was led by Insight Partners, with participation from existing investors Madrona, Bain Capital Ventures, South Park Commons, and QuantumLight for a total funding of $85 million in the past two years. Charta is an AI chart review platform that claims 11% revenue uplift by scaling pre-billing chart review across 100% of patient encounters to lessen the endless cycle of claims submissions, denials, and appeals. With the Series B, they launched the Charta for Payers platform for health plans, including six AI-powered modules to improve accuracy and operational efficiencies around medical billing and workflow. The fresh funding will help to expand Charta for Providers to additional medical specialties. Release, Mobihealthnews, Behavioral Health Business
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