Short takes: rounding up revenue and acquisition action during JPM

January 14, 2022 | by

The  JP Morgan conference (JPM), which wrapped on Thursday, is traditionally a major venue for healthcare announcements, from revenue to staff to investments. Having never attended but harboring a secret desire to observe (as a poor churchmouse on the wall–no fly am I) the 1% doing their thing, this Editor cannot imagine how boring it must be in virtual format. 

Here are a few highlights: the important, kind of interesting, and not too tedious.

  • Teladoc projects full-year 2021 revenue to hit $2.03 billion, nearly doubling its 2020 revenue. 2022’s projection is about $2.6 billion. It’s revenue without profitability, however. Teladoc lost $84.3 million Q3 2021, which more than doubled its PY $36 million loss. As we noted in our earlier article, Teladoc, like every other telehealth company, saw its shares plummet in 2021 as patients returned to offices and telehealth claims plunged to 4%, mostly for behavioral health. FierceHealthcare
  • Transcarent, Glen Tullman of Livongo’s ‘encore’ company, has landed a $200 million Series C and is now valued at $1.62 billion. Transcarent’s market is self-insured employers and provides a care management model focusing on personalized health and care support for employees. Kinnevik and Human Capital led investors and were joined by Ally Bridge Group, General Catalyst, 7wireVentures, and health systems Northwell Health, Intermountain Healthcare, and Rush University Medical Center. Release
  • Boston-based Medically Home, which supplies hospital-to-home support and integrates technology services, nabbed a $110 million venture round from investors Baxter International Inc., Global Medical Response, Cardinal Health, Mayo Clinic, and Kaiser Permanente. To date, they have worked with 7,000 patients. Release 
  • DexCare, a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that ‘orchestrates’ digital demand and health system capacity, closed a $50 million Series B funding led by Transformation Capital, with participation from Kaiser Permanente, Providence Ventures, Mass General Brigham, Define Ventures, Frist Cressey Ventures, and SpringRock Ventures. Release
  • Mental health/meditation app provider Headspace Health acquired startup Sayana to build out AI capabilities in mental health and wellness. Its self-care app leverages chat-based sessions with an AI persona. Terms were not disclosed, but Sayana CEO/founder Sergey Fayfer will join Headspace in a product leader role. Headspace acquired rival Ginger back in August [TTA 27 Aug]. FierceHealthcare, release

Headspace is also facing a shareholder lawsuit on securities fraud after going public in a $1.4 billion SPAC deal. According to FierceHealthcare, the charges filed 7 January center on non-disclosure in their financials of critical growth headwinds, including increased advertising and customer acquisition costs and worsening growth and gross margin trends. They also overvalued its accounts receivable from certain health plan clients. Coupled with management turmoil–their president/COO resigned after a ‘conduct’ problem at an offsite event–their share price has plummeted over 80%. Their projection of full-year 2021 revenue was cut to $112 million from $125 million. Headspace, of course, has said the suit is meritless.

  • Aledade, well known to this Editor as an organizer of accountable care organizations (ACOs) and a management services organization (MSO) for physician groups in value-based care, bought Iris Healthcare. Iris provides advance care and palliative care planning for health plans and providers for seriously ill and high-risk patients via its network of 1,000 independent primary care practices and health centers. It will be folded into their new Aledade Care Solutions unit. FierceHealthcare, release

Funding news roundup: Philips buys Capsule, Hims’ SPAC + Privia partnership, Signify Health’s $100M IPO; closed funding for K Health, Aledade, Conversa Health

January 27, 2021 | by

Royal Philips buys Capsule Technologies for $635 million, extending their integrated solutions platforms for patient care management. Capsule is a developer of medical device integration and data technologies, including vital signs monitoring and clinical surveillance services, for hospitals and healthcare organizations. These technologies connect medical devices and EMRs in hospitals through a vendor-neutral system. The deal will close in this quarter and Capsule’s approximately 300 employees will join Philips’ connected care segment. MassDevice, Philips release.

It’s all about the integration: Hims & Hers $1.6 bn SPAC completes, partners with Privia Health for telehealth and in-person visits. Now that Hims & Hers is now on the NYSE (courtesy of a ‘blank check’ with a division of Oaktree Capital Management) and valued at $1.6 billion, it continues its elevation out of e-commerce home delivery of erectile dysfunction and hair restoration meds to telehealth and in-person medicine. Starting about 18 months ago with virtual visits for minor maladies and mental health, Hims recently went beyond its homegrown capabilities with major providers such as New Orleans-based Ochsner Health System and New York City-based Mount Sinai Health System. Privia is a physician organization consisting of regional groups, ACOs, and specialty verticals in value-based care. Their addition to Hims will be for in-person and telehealth visits in the District of Columbia, Georgia, Maryland, Texas, and Virginia. In past months, it has been eagerly partnering with technology and analytics suppliers to build its management services portfolio. Another sign of more integration: Hims is also moving into pharmacy fulfillment after using outside suppliers. Hasn’t turned the profit corner yet, though. FierceHealthcare, Mobihealthnews

Signify Health signals an IPO. Going the more traditional route is Signify Health, which filed an S-1 registration statement with the SEC for a $100 million offering on the NYSE in the near future. Signify’s analytics and technology platform delivers through its mobile provider networks in-home health and care management services supporting major payers and value-based payment programs. Signify merged in 2019 with fellow, smaller New Mountain Capital company, the former Remedy Health, which specializes in managing providers through episodes of care/bundled payments under the CMS BPCI-A and commercial programs. It is not confirmed if New Mountain, a private equity company based in New York, will be exiting with the IPO. Signify Health release, FierceHealthcare.

Closing funding rounds:

Telehealth/AI platform K Health closed a $132M Series E round of funding led by GGV Capital and Valor Equity Partners, for a total since its 2016 start of $271 million. It also launched a pediatric version of the app, K for Parents. The app connects with doctors in 49 states but also uses health data, curated by AI, to provide patients with guidance for primary care, anxiety, and depression conditions. Release

Even non-telehealth or app-based healthcare companies are taking advantage of funding bounties. Aledade, a management services organization (MSO) for primary care practices, closed a $100 million Series D led by Meritech Capital Partners. Aledade partners with independent practices to organize ACOs in value-based care models. To date, Aledade has raised $249 million. Aledade release.

More modestly, Conversa Health closed its Series B at $20 million, up from $12 million. The round was led by Builders VC and Northwell Ventures. Conversa’s automated virtual care and triage platform remotely monitors, analyzes, and communicates with patients. During COVID, they developed COVID-19 Virtual Care Solutions, a mobile platform for hospitals to increase capacity by automating the outreach to and monitoring of vulnerable patient and employee populations. Release