- Healthcare technology company Ro recently announced that it has raised a $500 million Series D round of funding. These are the details.
Healthcare technology company Ro recently announced that it has raised a $500 million Series D round of funding led by existing investors General Catalyst, FirstMark Capital, and TQ Ventures with significant participation from existing investors SignalFire, Torch Capital, and BoxGroup as well as new investors Altimeter Capital, Baupost Group, Dragoneer Investment Group, ShawSpring Partners, Radcliff, and 776. And the Series D brings Ro’s total fundraising since its founding in 2017 to $876 million.
Ro plans to use the newly-raised capital to strengthen its vertically integrated primary care platform. And Ro plans to expand its pharmacy distribution network, continue to enhance its proprietary EMR (the Ro Collaborative Care Center), build new capabilities such as remote patient monitoring with integrated devices, and broaden into additional treatment areas that leverage its diagnostic capabilities.
The Series D round follows Ro’s acquisition of Workpath, which is a software platform that enables healthcare companies to offer on-demand, in-home care, and diagnostic services with a simple API. And the acquisition has allowed Ro to seamlessly integrate virtual and in-person care on its own platform and offer these in-home capabilities to other healthcare companies.
Utilizing this in-home care capability, Ro recently launched its COVID-19 Vaccine Drive. And working with New York State’s Department of Health, Ro is administering COVID-19 vaccinations for eligible New Yorkers directly in their homes. This program aims to help vulnerable populations, including the elderly and homebound, that face logistical challenges accessing vaccination sites. The Vaccine Drive is currently active in select zip codes in Yonkers, New York.
Ro is also planning to use its in-home care capability to offer in-home diagnostic testing, which will enable healthcare providers on Ro’s platform to treat conditions that require lab work in a way that is safe and convenient for patients. Along with in-home care, Ro’s vertically integrated primary care platform allows for the immediate nationwide distribution of new treatments and medical devices. And Ro recently partnered with healthcare AI company Gauss to offer Gauss’s smartphone-powered, at-home COVID-19 rapid antigen tests on Ro’s platform upon Food and Drug Administration Emergency Use Authorization. Plus Ro has also partnered with biotechnology company Gelesis to make Gelesis’s weight management treatment Plenity available to patients nationwide utilizing Ro’s nationwide network of affiliated healthcare practitioners and pharmacy distribution centers.
KEY QUOTES:
“The current healthcare system is working beautifully for insurance companies, but terribly for patients; to pretend otherwise is absolutely ridiculous. It’s time to give patients power. Ro is the only company to combine a nationwide telemedicine, pharmacy distribution, and in-home care network. Through this vertically integrated platform we’re making high-quality care available when and where patients need it, with no insurance required so patients are the ones in control. We’re powering a patient revolution, and we’re just getting started.”
— Zachariah Reitano, Co-Founder & CEO of Ro
“What Zach and his team have been able to build in less than four years is nothing short of amazing. That this company was started from a place of personal challenge has guided the team to truly rethink healthcare experiences through a patient-centric lens. The team has continuously upleveled their thinking along the way and, as a result, they’ve got the potential to create an outsized positive impact on how we all access healthcare both via the internet and at home.”
— Hemant Taneja, managing partner at General Catalyst, co-founder of Livongo, and a Ro investor
