Pomelo Care – a virtual medical practice that improves maternal and newborn health outcomes – recently announced $33 million in Seed and Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. This funding round will be used for driving Pomelo’s continued partnership expansion with major health plans, including several Medicaid-managed care organizations, employers, and leading academic medical centers on the front lines of the national maternal health crisis.
The company’s multispecialty team of expert clinicians cares for mothers and infants from preconception through pregnancy, birth, and one year postpartum, spanning everything from prenatal care to nutrition and lactation to mental health. Its value-based virtual care model pairs each patient with a personalized care team to comprehensively address maternal health inequities and the root causes of poor outcomes. And Pomelo uses data to predict and proactively identify risk, provides holistic care leveraging evidence-based protocols and novel care programs, and makes 24/7 care accessible via phone, text, and video.
Since being founded in 2021, Pomelo has achieved significant milestones, including:
— $33 million in capital raised – The company announced Series A financing, which follows its 2021 Seed round. Andreessen Horowitz led both funding rounds, with additional participating investors First Round Capital (who co-led the Seed round), SV Angel, Operator Partners, Allen & Company LLC, and BoxGroup, joined by angel investors and healthcare industry leaders including Adam Boehler, Managing Partner of Rubicon Founders, Former Director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), and Founder of Landmark Health and Puneet Singh, Former Chief Growth Officer, Diversified Business Group at Elevance.
— On track to cover 2 million lives this year: Pomelo currently serves patients across 44 states and partners with national payers, several of the largest Medicaid managed care organizations in the country, employers including Mount Sinai Health System, and leading academic medical centers including Penn Medicine.
— Over 4.9/5 average patient satisfaction: Pomelo provides 24/7 access to care with one-third of patient interactions taking place outside of traditional clinic hours and an average response time of five minutes.
Despite spending $111 billion every year on maternal healthcare, the U.S. has some of the highest rates of preterm birth, NICU admissions, and preventable maternal complications in the developed world. The maternal mortality worsened during the pandemic with poor maternal and newborn outcomes remaining even more common in communities of color and rural areas. One in ten newborns start their life in the NICU and cesarean births have increased 41% over the last two decades. But with evidence-based and accessible interventions, preterm births can be reduced by 33%, cesarean deliveries reduced by 40%, and the average NICU stay reduced by at least four days.
Pomelo’s team consists of clinicians – 50% of whom are BIPOC – technologists and executives with backgrounds at leading hospitals, academic medical centers, and technology companies. And the team’s previous experience spans Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Duke University Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Flatiron Health, Kaiser Permanente, Emory University Hospital, Google, and Stripe. Pomelo also announced the appointment of Vineeta Agarwala, MD, Ph.D., General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and Josh Kopelman, Partner at First Round Capital, to the company’s board of directors.
KEY QUOTES:
“We know that the right care at the right time can dramatically improve outcomes for families. Everyone deserves access to high-quality care, regardless of their circumstances or health plan. That’s why Pomelo exists – we address patient concerns right away and at home, keeping them out of the emergency room unnecessarily and lowering their risk of pregnancy, postpartum and newborn complications.”
— Marta Bralic Kerns, founder and CEO at Pomelo Care
“It’s inexcusable that women in the U.S. face one of the highest national mortality rates from preventable complications during pregnancy – and this statistic is only worsening year over year due to social disparities and systemic gaps in care delivery and access. Pomelo Care’s technology-driven, value-based care model completely reimagines how new families access high quality specialty care and achieve better outcomes while also reducing costs for our leading health plans, health systems and employers.”
— Vineeta Agarwala, MD, PhD, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz
