- Mahmee — a data-driven maternal and infant health tech company — announced it raised $3 million from an all-star team of investors
Mahmee is a data-driven maternal and infant health tech company that is building the missing digital infrastructure for connecting the maternal health industry and preventing critical gaps in care. Recently, Mahmee announced it has raised $3 million in funding from Mark Cuban and Serena Williams (via Serena Ventures) along with several other notable investors.
The round was led by ArlanWasHere Investments (the joint venture investment fund between Backstage Capital managing partner Arlan Hamilton and Cuban) with support from Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund. They join previous investors Cross Culture Ventures, Acumen America, The Helm, Backstage Capital, Bumble Fund, Pipeline Angels, and others.
“It is my honor to serve as Mahmee’s lead investor in their Series Seed. Along with Mark Cuban, Serena Williams, Revolution Ventures’ Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, and other key investors, we feel Melissa, Sunny, and the Mahmee team are primed to continue the groundbreaking work they’re doing in the femtech space in a robust and profitable way,” Hamilton commented. “I’m consistently in awe of the talent and prowess of the management team, and excited by the sheer vastness of the market opportunity. This is truly one of those cases where by doing good (in some cases saving lives), the team can do well.”
What does Mahmee do? The problem is that moms and babies are falling through the cracks of a fragmented healthcare industry. As a result, the U.S. has become one of the most dangerous places in the developed world to give birth and 700 mothers die from birth complications and 50,000 become severely injured each year. According to the CDC, for every 5 mothers who die in the U.S. from pregnancy and childbirth, 3 could have been saved.
“I am incredibly excited to invest and partner with Mahmee, a company that personifies my firm’s investment philosophy,” noted Williams. “Given the bleak data surrounding maternal death and injury rates, I believe that it is absolutely critical right now to invest in solutions that help protect the lives of moms and babies. Mahmee’s data-driven approach is the right solution to one of the most significant problems in the system: that of fragmented care.”
Mahmee essentially links the health history and data of the moms and their babies, proactively engages with them, checks on and monitors patients via “maternity coaches,” and escalates concerns to doctors so that the care plan of moms and their babies stay up-to-date and critical red flags aren’t missed. This is done through a HIPAA-secure online dashboard available to new and expecting parents and their medical providers.
“In the maternity healthcare process, on the surface there are generally three or four people involved: the mother, the baby, and each of their physicians. What we don’t see are the many other people helping them: nurses, lactation consultants, midwives, nutritionists, therapists, doulas, home health aides, social workers, and more,” said Mahmee CEO and co-founder Melissa Hanna. “And this industry is lacking the IT infrastructure needed to connect these professionals from different organizations to each other, and to follow and monitor patients across practices and health systems. This missing element creates gaps in care. Mahmee is the glue that connects the care ecosystem and closes the gaps.”
Along with Melissa Hanna, Mahmee was also co-founded by CTO Sunny Walia (former VP of Engineering and Operations at Demand Media and former CTO of SpinMedia), and Chief Nursing Officer Linda Hanna (a Registered Nurse in Obstetrics, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, and veteran health care expert who pioneered world-class maternity and lactation programs at Kaiser Permanente and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center).
“Mahmee’s mission is to increase access to comprehensive care for all mothers and babies,” added Linda Hanna. “We work as an extension of the care team. In doing that, we help providers listen to mothers, better understand their needs, and stay one step ahead of medical crises.”
Mahmee currently has more than 1,000 providers and organizations in its network such as Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, AltaMed, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and UCLA. And the proprietary platform has identified and escalated over 1,000 critical care issues, including sepsis, postpartum psychosis, and postnatal hemorrhaging. In each of those cases, Mahmee’s care management team verified rising clinical risk, escalated the issue to physicians’ attention, and worked with providers to facilitate a course of care — in some cases, a life-saving intervention. Mahmee works with both private and Medicaid-focused health plans.
“My investment reflects my confidence in the strength of this team, and the value of their mission: to fill a major gap in the existing health care system that very few others are tackling,” explained Cuban. “This tech solution is helping usher in the future of maternity health care.”
This round of funding will be used for growing Mahmee’s team of engineers, clinicians and sales staff who combine health industry know-how, proprietary technology, and data-driven clinical workflows for supporting the company’s current and forthcoming partnerships with billion-dollar health systems across the country.
“There is a massive unmet opportunity to improve maternal and infant outcomes by leveraging both personalized care and tech infrastructure at scale. The Mahmee team brings deep clinical and industry expertise and are uniquely positioned to be the critical change the healthcare industry needs,” said Mary Grove, Partner at Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund. “We’re proud to support Mahmee’s important mission and look forward to helping the team expand to more markets and revolutionize maternal healthcare.”
