- Oath Care — a new social company focused on building the future of healthcare — announced that it raised $2 million. These are the details.
Oath Care — a new social company focused on building the future of healthcare — announced that it raised $2 million from XYZ Venture Capital, General Catalyst, Muse Capital, and Eros Resmini (former CMO of Discord and managing partner of the Mini Fund). And the company will use funds to aggressively hire and accelerate product development in preparation for its public launch later this year.
Oath is building a social community-based network and mobile app that combines intimate connections and shared parental experiences with healthcare specialist support and guidance through group chat and 1:1 video calls. And starting with small groups for moms, Oath’s technology intelligently matches women in “circles” of 6-10 women based on criteria such as stage of pregnancy/age of child, location, and career. The circles are led by a trained facilitator and provide the opportunity to ask questions of healthcare specialists or schedule consultations to address any issue along the pregnancy and early childhood journey.
Oath’s initial offering is targeted for expecting and new moms — which is a group that sorely lacks continuous, proactive, and evidence-based support. And motherhood presents a steep learning curve, and parents are often terrified they will do something wrong. They have been overwhelmed with bad information, judged by other parents about everything from the products they choose to how they hold their babies, and often receive inconsistent, anecdotal advice that often flies in the face of science. Oath essentially provides a judgement-free community that empowers parents to make the best decisions at every turn for the health of their family.
Oath’s beta version has already proven its concept as 94% of participants transitioned to paying customers, purchasing low-cost monthly subscriptions and “credits” for additional features or services they would like, such as private consultations with providers and specialists. And the company has seen 100% organic growth from Oath members, facilitators, and providers since the start of the beta. Plus Oath currently has a waiting list of members and providers who want to join its platform.
KEY QUOTES:
“We’ve got a system today where everything is fragmented: medical knowledge is siloed, care is episodic, even the experience of healthcare itself is lonely. But health doesn’t happen in isolation. We believe intentional, intimate community is the single most important lever in driving long-term positive health outcomes. This is why we created Oath as first a social company that is ultimately defining an entirely new system for human wellbeing.”
— Camilla Hermann, CEO and co-founder of Oath
“Our current experience of the healthcare system is incredibly lonely, and never is this more obvious than during pregnancy and postpartum. Oath is trying to reverse the negative effects of this experience, focusing on pregnancy and pediatrics initially, because that’s where human health starts; it’s the foundation of human potential. By understanding how health evolves in a highly embedded, richly contextualized way, we can build a novel baseline for human health and wellbeing that meaningfully shifts outcomes for the next generation of kids.”
— Dr. Michelle Stephens, Oath co-founder, pediatric clinician and research scientist in early childhood stress physiology
“Oath is unlike anything I’ve ever been a part of. My group is so encouraging. They understand exactly what I am going through. There’s a lot of laughter and a lot of tears among us each week, and I don’t know what I would do without this sisterhood. I never feel alone.”
— Becky Grymonprez, Oath group member for over a year and mom of a 14-month-old
“Oath has tapped into an essential need, with an abundance of quality, highly vetted resources that deliver exactly the experience people crave in a very simple, direct and personal manner. The market is huge in motherhood alone, with more than 4 million babies born in the U.S. each year. When you extend this model of care throughout childhood and beyond, you have the opportunity to transform healthcare in a way that maps to the human experience.”
— Chauncey Hamilton, Partner at XYZ and Oath member
