- ConsejoSano — a rapidly-growing healthcare technology company that delivers culturally-centric and technology-based solutions designed to close the gap in multicultural patient care — announced it closed $17 million in a Series B funding round
ConsejoSano — a rapidly-growing healthcare technology company that delivers culturally-centric and technology-based solutions designed to close the gap in multicultural patient care — announced it closed $17 million in a Series B funding round led by Magnetic Ventures. And additional investors include The American Heart Association/Bernard J. Tyson Impact Fund, DaVita Venture Group, Salesforce Ventures, NBA All-Star Victor Oladipo as well as existing institutional investors 7wireVentures, Impact Engine, Tufts Health Plan, and Wanxiang America. Including this funding round, the total raised is $24 million to date.
And according to the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, health disparities for racial and ethnic minorities in the US take on many forms, including higher rates of chronic disease and premature death compared to the rates among whites.
The COVID-19 pandemic has further laid bare the health disparities faced by minority populations. According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID-19 hospitalization rates among Black and Latinx people are both 4.7x the rate of their white counterparts. And there are more than 74 million Americans on Medicaid, 60% of whom identify as members of a minority group, and 60 million on Medicare who would benefit from improving their overall preventative care and, in many cases, chronic disease management.
ConsejoSano essentially helps payers and providers increase engagement with diverse populations to enhance quality measures and produce better health outcomes. And The Cultural Determinants of Health Engine developed by ConsejoSano is the only two-way communications platform that utilizes cultural insights to build patient trust in more than 25 languages including English. This platform improves access to care and achieves greater health equity by engaging patients through their preferred communications approach such as texting, e-mail, telephone, and mail.
Along with addressing ongoing gaps in care for payers and providers, ConsejoSano’s technology platform is currently improving COVID-19 education and awareness among underserved and vulnerable populations nationwide. Given that the current pandemic is 3x more deadly for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people, ConsejoSano is playing a vital role in delivering trusted communications in culturally-fitting and linguistically-familiar formats to diverse populations. And during the last several months alone, ConsejoSano’s platform enabled more than 50,000 telemedicine appointments for lower-income patients covered by Medicaid and Medicare.
Launched in 2017, ConsejoSano currently engages 1.5 million patients across 12 states, in 25 different languages, and has amassed over 2 million cultural data points. And the company’s technology-based solution is currently used by four of the top five managed care plans in the country, enabling them to increase patient engagement, improve quality measures such as HEDIS and Star Ratings, and maximize overall health outcomes. ConsejoSano grew nearly 400% in annually-recurring revenue from 2019 to 2020 and supported more than a 340% increase in two-way interactions between patients and their health plans or providers.
In addition to ConsejoSano CEO and founder Abner Mason and Christine Aylward (Founder & Managing Partner of Magnetic Ventures), the ConsejoSano Board of Directors includes Dr. Molly Coye, a former Director of Aetna, a nationally recognized expert on telehealth and a member of the Biden-Harris Policy Committee, and Robert Garber, a Partner at 7wireVentures, which led the Series A round of financing.
KEY QUOTES:
“America is multicultural, but healthcare isn’t. We are on a mission to change that. Our underserved communities need and deserve greater engagement and access to healthcare designed and delivered with them in mind. I’m grateful to have investors who share our vision to make healthcare work for everyone who calls this country home.”
– Abner Mason, Founder, and CEO of ConsejoSano
“While disparities in care among minority populations have always existed, COVID-19 has dramatically, and tragically, brought these disparities to the forefront. There has never been a more critical time to fix this and to provide more equitable healthcare – we are long overdue. We believe ConsejoSano’s unique technology platform, which is powered by a deep understanding of cultural nuances, is the best offering available to build trust, close gaps in care, and improve outcomes for minority patients.”
– Christine Aylward, Founder & Managing Partner of Magnetic Ventures
“We’re passionate about creating health equity and have deep experience treating a diverse patient population. We are excited to innovate with ConsejoSano to improve the lives of patients in underserved communities.”
– Javier Rodriguez, CEO of DaVita
