- Leading direct-to-consumer at-home health testing and insights company LetsGetChecked recently announced it raised $71 million in Series C funding
Leading direct-to-consumer at-home health testing and insights company LetsGetChecked recently announced it raised $71 million in Series C funding. Illumina Ventures and HLM Venture Partners co-led the round with new investors including Deerfield, CommonFund Capital, and Angeles Investments. And existing investors Transformation Capital, Optum Ventures, and Qiming Venture Partners USA also participated in this round.
In connection with the funding, Illumina Ventures founding partner Nick Naclerio and HLM Venture Partners partner Steven Tolle have joined as board members of the company.
With this round of funding, LetsGetChecked will increase manufacturing, supply, and testing capacity for COVID-19 along with scale-up activity at its CLIA certified high complexity laboratory in California. Plus the investment will enable the company to expand supply and business operations and support personnel across the United States and Europe and to deepen its partnerships with leading insurers and employers.
The LetsGetChecked “twin-track” coronavirus test includes a rapid (antibody) serology test for results within 15 minutes. And that is followed by a PCR-based test — which requires a swab sample to be collected from a patient and later processed within the LetsGetChecked high complexity CLIA lab. These tests help relieve pressure on over-stretched hospital screening services and speed up the identification of potential cases by providing additional testing capabilities for frontline healthcare workers, at-risk groups, and critical workers.
Along with COVID-19 testing, consumers can order a variety of physician-approved at-home health tests via LetsGetChecked.com or with partner retailers online with other in-store retail options expanding through 2020.
And available tests currently include wellness testing and chronic condition testing (e.g. diabetes, cholesterol, and thyroid testing; cancer screening, sexual health testing, fertility testing, and pharmacogenomic testing)
After a test is purchased, users collect samples at home and send it back to LetsGetChecked’s accredited facility at no additional cost. Accurate results are available online within a matter of days confidentially.
Throughout this process, consumers are connected with in-state and board-certified physicians to discuss any abnormal results and determine the best course of action for treatment and care. And consumers will also receive a call from a medical professional to discuss their results live — which can be accompanied by an e-prescription from a pharmacy of their choice.
LetsGetChecked has also integrated with a number of CLIA-certified reference labs and health systems in the US and Europe. And it is building partnerships with a growing number of US healthcare insurers and employers for personalized screening, home, and employer onsite testing. For shipping and handling, the company has logistics partnerships with UPS and USPS to provide a seamless and convenient consumer experience with rapid turnaround for testing results.
Key Quotes:
“We have been developing our platform for more than five years and have helped hundreds of thousands of individuals by enabling access to high-quality testing and telehealth services in the home, across many health conditions. With the onset of COVID-19, we realigned resources with a view to helping with this global pandemic and are currently delivering tens of thousands of tests per day to critical and frontline healthcare workers. We are working hard to deliver COVID-19 testing into the home and hope to have an answer soon. At-home testing has never been more important as consumers around the world look for new and trusted methods for managing their health.”
-LetsGetChecked founder and CEO Peter Foley.
“As a fund dedicated to improving human health, we’re thrilled to support LetsGetChecked’s mission of empowering consumers to take more control of their personal health. The company’s work has never been more important now that the world faces a global pandemic, forcing us all to re-evaluate how we obtain health and wellness services. LetsGetChecked is already having a profound impact on patient-led at-home healthcare, which is necessary now and will become increasingly common in the future.”
-Nick Naclerio.
“HLM invests in companies that inherently drive adoption due to the need they serve, and companies that leverage important market trends. In this case, LetsGetChecked is helping to improve consumer access to care, which is increasingly essential.”
-Steven Tolle.
