With the new investment, Ro is enabled to scale its telehealth, pharmacy distribution, and in-home care delivery service capabilities
Ro raises $500m in Series D funding round. (Credit: Adam Radosavljevic from Pixabay.)
Healthcare technology company Ro has secured $500m in a Series D funding round, led by existing investors General Catalyst, FirstMark Capital and TQ Ventures.
Existing investors including SignalFire, Torch Capital and BoxGroup as well as new investors Altimeter Capital, Baupost Group, Dragoneer Investment Group, ShawSpring Partners, Radcliff, and 776 also participated in the funding round.
The Series D funding round brings the healthcare technology company’s total investment to $876m, since its inception in 2017.
Ro will use the funds to strengthen its vertically integrated primary care platform to offer personalised healthcare experience from diagnosis, to delivery of medication and ongoing care.
The company intends to expand its pharmacy distribution network, and enhance its unique electronic medical record (EMR) application, dubbed Ro Collaborative Care Centre.
Also, it aims to build new capabilities including remote patient monitoring with integrated devices and expand into new treatment areas using its diagnostic capabilities.
General Catalyst managing partner Hemant Taneja said: “What Zach and his team have been able to build in less than four years is nothing short of amazing.
“That this company was started from a place of personal challenge has guided the team to truly rethink healthcare experiences through a patient-centric lens.
“The team has continuously upleveled their thinking along the way and, as a result, they’ve got the potential to create an outsized positive impact on how we all access healthcare both via the internet and at home.”
The current funding round follows the company’s acquisition of Workpath, which helps healthcare companies offer on-demand, in-home care and diagnostic services using its simple API.
Ro said that the acquisition has enabled it to integrate virtual and in-person care on its own platform and provide in-home capabilities to other healthcare companies.
The company is using the in-home care capability to offer healthcare providers on its platform in-home diagnostic testing services.
In addition to in-home care, Ro’s vertically integrated primary care platform allows for the immediate distribution of new treatments and medical devices.
The company claimed that with a network of providers, in-home care API, and pharmacy distribution centres, it connects the telehealth, diagnostics, and pharmacy services to offer high-quality healthcare.
Ro co-founder and CEO Zachariah Reitano said: “The current healthcare system is working beautifully for insurance companies, but terribly for patients; to pretend otherwise is absolutely ridiculous. It’s time to give patients power.
“Ro is the only company to combine a nationwide telemedicine, pharmacy distribution, and in-home care network.
“Through this vertically integrated platform we’re making high-quality care available when and where patients need it, with no insurance required so patients are the ones in control. We’re powering a patient revolution, and we’re just getting started.”
Ro has partnered with healthcare AI company Gauss to provide the latter’s smartphone-powered, at-home Covid-19 rapid antigen tests on its platform, which received FDA EUA.
Furthermore, the company has partnered with biotechnology firm Gelesis to roll out its weight management treatment Plenity.