- Nurx, a health tech company that is providing convenient and affordable care for sensitive needs, announced it raised $52 million
Nurx — the health tech company providing convenient and affordable care for sensitive health needs — announced it raised $52 million in Series C funding. This round of funding was led by Kleiner Perkins Digital Growth Fund and Union Square Ventures with participation from Reproductive Health Investors Alliance, Dreamers VC, Lowercase Capital, and Y Combinator as well as Triple Point Capital for equity and debt.
With this round of funding, Nurx will introduce more services for sensitive health needs as well as grow its patient community to reach more people who face systemic barriers to healthcare. And Nurx will also focus on expanding its medical provider team as well as investing in its telemedicine platform to continue improving and streamlining the patient experience.
Currently, Nurx provides more than 200,000 current patients across the country with high-quality care for sensitive health needs that can often carry a stigma and can be met with judgment. For example, the company has provided birth control to more than 400,000 women since the company was founded.
Nurx is seeing 20% new patient growth month over month with the greatest concentration in southern states where over 40% of Nurx’s patients reside. In the past year, the company has launched in nine new states and is now available to 85 percent of the U.S. population. As nearly 20 million women in the U.S. live in areas without reasonable access to contraceptive care, Nurx remains committed to expanding its impact and reaching women whose reproductive health needs are not being met by the traditional healthcare system.
Once a patient shares their health history through the Nurx app, their Nurx medical provider will consult with the patient regarding their request within 1-2 days while the Nurx platform checks their insurance. And approved by their Nurx provider, medication and home testing kits arrive in discreet packaging at the patient’s home within 3-5 days. After the initial consultation or exam, Nurx patients also have unlimited access to their provider for one year allowing them to ask as many questions about their health condition as they’d like. Nurx is currently available in 26 states and the District of Columbia, encompassing over 85% of the U.S. population.
This past year, the company has focused on offering additional sensitive healthcare services that address public health epidemics. And Nurx introduced STI home test kits last month and has already provided more than one thousand patients with information about their STI status.
Thousands of women have chosen Nurx for affordable and convenient cervical cancer screening using its HPV home test, and more than 80% of them also trust Nurx for their contraception needs. And Nurx is committed to providing its patients with transparent and affordable pricing by accepting health insurance and offering cost-effective options for those who are uninsured.
“The typical healthcare experience is slow, confusing, and expensive and doesn’t leave people feeling empowered to make decisions about their health,” said Nurx CEO Varsha Rao. “We’re incredibly motivated by the impact we’ve made over the last few years, particularly in areas of the country where people turn to us because they don’t have any options. By focusing our efforts on health needs that often carry shame and stigma, we’re excited to reach more people and provide them with more sensitive healthcare services they need and deserve.”
Nurx also offers HIV prevention medication, providing PrEP to over 6,000 patients across the country. And Nurx is the only company that allows patients to consult with a provider to determine if PrEP is right for them, complete the necessary lab work with its PrEP home test kit, receive and fill the prescription, and have PrEP delivered straight to their door all without having to visit a physical health center. Plus Nurx also connects its patients with the company’s PrEP navigator team to assist with insurance coverage and payment assistance programs, ensuring the majority of Nurx patients have affordable access to what can be a prohibitively expensive medication.
In the past year, Nurx has hired hundreds of employees across its operations, legal and compliance, engineering, marketing, pharmacy, and customer service teams to rapidly scale and grow the company. Over half of Nurx’s leadership team is women — which has expanded over the last year to include highly seasoned and experienced executives across nearly every department.
Varsha Rao — who was an early investor in Nurx — joined the team several months ago as CEO after having previously served as COO of Clover Health and Head of Global Operations at Airbnb. Plus the company also welcomed Chelsea Clinton and former U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, MD, MBA to its board of directors.
“Nurx has grown tremendously over the last year, establishing itself as the leading online service for birth control and building a world-class leadership team,” added Kleiner Perkins Digital Growth Fund general partner and Bond co-founder Noah Knauf. “We’re excited to support the Nurx team as it continues to expand its sensitive health offerings and reach more people whose needs aren’t being met by the current healthcare system.”
Nurx’s technology platform connects medical providers and pharmacies directly to patients in a single app and enables a patient-centered, efficient, transparent, and cost-effective way to deliver high-quality care that eliminates many of the access barriers to healthcare. And Nurx eliminates the average wait time of 24 days to find an available doctor’s appointment as well as the average two hours Americans spend driving to a doctor’s office, sitting in the waiting room, and filling out forms for a limited amount of face-to-face time with the doctor.
“The Nurx platform has allowed the company to connect hundreds of thousands of people with its medical team by tackling many of the common barriers people face when trying to access healthcare,” explained Union Square Ventures managing partner Andrew Weissman. “Our investment in the Series C round mirrors our conviction in the Nurx team to make an even larger impact on public health needs.”
