- Vida Health is a virtual health coaching company that builds personalized programs for a number of enterprise customers
- Recently, Vida Health announced it raised $30 million from GuideWell Mutual Holding Corporation, Teladoc Health, and Workday Ventures
Vida Health is a San Francisco-based virtual health coaching company that recently raised $30 million in Series C funding from strategic investors GuideWell Mutual Holding Corporation, Teladoc Health, and Workday Ventures. Including this round, Vida Health has raised about $58 million.
With this round of funding, Vida said it is going to grow its sales and marketing team. And it will further position the company strategically as it scales up its presence.
Originally founded in 2014, Vida Health provides personalized health coaching and therapy for helping users better manage physical and mental chronic health conditions such as asthma, anxiety, diabetes, and depression.
“I think we’re taking a unique approach in the market where we’re not just relying on venture funding,” said Vida Health CEO Stephanie Tilenius in an interview with MobiHealthNews. “We’re looking for strategic partners that can really add value to the company and drive distribution and healthcare expertise and enable us to scale to millions of chronic patients.”
Vida Health sells connected devices such as glucometers and scales to self-funded insurers such as eBay, PayPal, and Cisco. And Vida has seen tremendous growth in health plans that are looking to better manage high-risk populations virtually.
For a customer like Cisco — which has many employees from Southeast Asia — Vida has designed a low-calorie Indian diet that could be followed to lose weight and lower blood sugar.
One of the companies involved in this program is GuideWell — which is associated with the Florida Blue health plan. GuideWell is going to integrate Vida’s services to 100,000 members in order to help manage the conditions of members with co-morbidities and measure the impact on outcomes and cost savings. And Vida’s new relationship with telemedicine company Teladoc will help them better integrate virtual clinical care solutions.
“When we first started looking for a partner for our commercial insurance business, we knew we needed something that could address the needs of our entire population without losing the ability to personalize solutions,” added GuideWell CEO Patrick Geraghty in a statement. “Vida Health fits the bill as a virtual care platform for chronic disease management that combines both the human touch and the technology to scale. We’re very pleased to find a team that shares our values of care and we look forward to rolling it out.”
And recently, Vida hired Cynthia “CJ” Mark as its chief commercial officer. Mark also previously worked as an Executive Director at Teladoc Health.
Some of Vida Health’s largest rivals include Livongo and Omada. Livongo is currently the market leader with over $200 million in funding, 670 customers, and plans to go public this year.
When Tilenius saw those rivals launch mental health programs to their chronic care coaching tools, her first thought was that they were copying her company. “Everyone’s realizing that you need to combine physical and mental health,” Tilenius pointed out via Forbes.
Vida’s mission is personal to Tilenius as she saw her father suffer from diabetes, heart disease, obesity and depression. And in the U.S., 40% of adults have co-morbidities. And Vida Health’s total user base is at a shocking 66%.
“We’re proud to partner with a company like Vida Health because it puts people at the center of care with a virtual solution that empowers employees to be the very best they can be,” explained Workday’s SVP of corporate strategy and managing director and co-head of Workday Ventures Leighanne Levensaler.
And Teladoc SVP of product and strategy Daniel Trencher told MobiHealthNews believes that Vida will be received well by their clients and by the market as an “innovative and unique partnership.”
