Apps protecting us from air pollution, keeping our mental health in check, services to monitor our diets and beat bad habits – all this and much more is what we need to keep our healths under check.
The Coronavirus pandemic opened the new decade with malaise and ensured that health and wellness never leaves the focus of our collective conscience. To say that the pandemic has forever altered our perception of wellbeing would be putting it mildly.
And the numbers are there to prove it: The U.S. home healthcare market was valued at $133 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 7.49% from 2022 to 2030 – The recent technological advancements of at-home healthcare services are likely to drive the market growth even further.
And as our technological toolkit expands, the healthcare industry is accommodating more of it in the way it delivers care to patients. Be it through apps, or wearables or a remote companion – the solutions are developing, and fast. With this as our present, what does the future look like?
Here are ten American startups that offer a glimpse of this and more:
There are fewer things more important to human health than air quality. And Aclima understands that – Founded in 2007, this San Francisco-based company has raised a total of $64 million over two funding rounds. Aclima uses roving and stationary sensors to measure air pollution and greenhouse gases.
It then uses its professional analytics software, Aclima Pro, to translate billions of scientific measurements into environmental intelligence for governments, companies, and communities. The company’s free app air.health maps address-level air and climate insights.
Aclima CEO Davida Herzl/Linkedin
New York City-based Cedar provides a patient payment and engagement platform. Founded in 2016, Cedar prides itself on providing a smarter, more efficient way for hospitals, health systems and medical groups to manage the patient payment ecosystem. In May 2021, Cedar acquired Ooda Health – a startup focused on improving the healthcare administrative experience with payers and providers – for $425 million.
Cedar counts Andreessen Horowitz and Thrive Capital among its investors. The company raised $351 million in a Series D round in March 2021.
Cedar team. Image courtesy: Cedar/Linkedin
New York City-based Eatiquette is building a platform called EatQ to help food brands get discovered. Founded in 2020, Eatiquette’s focus is on bringing total transparency and traceability from the producer to the consumer for food products.
Before pivoting to this B2B approach, Eatiquette previously built a mobile app for conscious consumers to compare products through understandable ingredients and nutrition.
Eatiquette Founder Wietske Helle/Linkedin
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Firefly Lab was formed as a collaborative effort between clinicians and scientists forged in order to develop solutions that are at the intersection of medicine and informatics. Co-founded by Dr. Ruchi Thanawala and Jonathan Jesneck, Firefly Lab’s interests and focus range from organization level information system architecture to data-driven resource allocation to customized knowledge delivery to individuals and groups.
“The current practice of surgical training centers around informal apprenticeship. While students are eager to improve, it can be hard to build relationships with multiple educators, especially busy ones,” said Dr. Thanawala. “Educators are undoubtedly passionate about their fields but have so far been without adequate tools to track resident operative performance and assess the quality of their program over time.”
Firefly co-founders Dr. Ruchi Thanawala, Dr. Jonathan Jenske. Image courtesy: Firefly Lab
Itiliti Health’s mission is to reduce the cost of care by enabling efficient, real time collaboration between payers and providers and eliminate wasteful administrative expenses.
Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based Itiliti Health was founded in 2019 by Michael Lunzer and Kurt Hulander and helps users access health data and automate decisions – it uses medical policy transparency and AI to deliver widely available, automated prior authorizations to the US healthcare system. The company has raised $4.5 million in funding so far.
Itiliti Health team. Image courtesy: Itiliti Health/Linkedin
San Francisco and London-based QuitGenius is a behavior change platform that uses digital coaching, personalized content, wearable technology and medication based on the principle of Medication-Assisted Treatment to help people overcome addictive behaviors. Founded in 2017, Quit Genius is the world’s first digital clinic for treating nicotine, alcohol and opioid addictions.
In July 2021, the startup raised $64 million, and said now partners with 55 employers and health plan clients.
QuitGenius team. Image courtesy: QuitGenius
Source Meridian is a development software company that specializes in data analytics, healthcare technology, and artificial intelligence – providing rich technology competencies in, publishing, text analytics and pharmaceutical domain expertise to its clients.
Founded in 2016 by Mike Hoey, Source Meridian has two offices in the United States in Philadelphia and three offices in Latin America. During the pandemic, Source Meridian provided its partners with tools built to shore-up inefficiencies rooted in the methodology of traceability, revamp data security practices, and endeavor to meet other novel service challenges.
Source Meridian team. Image courtesy: Source Meridian
Miami, Florida-based UMore is an AI-powered mental well-being tracker that helps users build positive habits, change behaviors and share their progress with friends and family. The two-year-old startup uses empirically-validated psychometric questionnaires to measure mental well-being and makes recommendations based on the results.
The app helps users track their habits, sleep, stress and anxiety helping them become more emotionally aware and mindful of their mental state. The company has raised a total of $630K in funding over three rounds.
UMore CEO Maria de Freitas
Scottsdale, Arizona-based VitalConnection is the practice of Dr. Bilge Gregory provides cosmetic surgery services in Arizona including hormone replacement therapies, injectables, IV therapy and liposuction.
Dr. Gregory hopes to have a facility with services such as cosmetic and plastic surgery, injectables, IV therapy, hormone therapy, nutrition, exercise therapy and personal training, acupuncture, Reiki, personal development seminars, and more.
VitalConnection CEO Dr. Bilge Gregory/YouTube
Disclaimer: This article features a client of an Espacio portfolio company.
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