On Tuesday, Alpha Medical, a telemedicine business specializing in women’s health, closed a $24 million Series B financing. It’s another firm caught in the crossfire of a pandemic-fueled telemedicine investment boom, albeit Alpha Medical’s approach differs in one important way: you won’t be able to join any Zoom calls. Alpha Medical was established in the year 2017. Since then, the company has built a network of 30 staffed primary care doctors (referred to as PCPs in the industry) who treat female patients online, without the use of phone or video calls.
You can create an account, provide your medical information and patient intake forms, and be assigned a PCP with whom you’ll speak via an online platform for a $120 yearly charge (not covered by insurance).
Patient health records can be examined by a physician on an online platform rather than during a face-to-face visit in this sort of telehealth, which is frequently referred to as “store and forward.”
Gloria Lau, co-founder and CEO of Women’s Health, tells TechCrunch, “We give you a primary care physician that is knowledgeable [in women’s health].” “We do everything asynchronously online.”
There are certain exceptions; if a problem can’t be addressed online, you may be referred to a lab for testing or to another primary care physician. “However, in the broader scheme of things, we believe that around 80% of activities can be done online. The remaining 20% or so must be done in person, according to Lau. Startups that focus on women’s health are beginning to get traction and funding. Tia, a women’s telemedicine startup with a physical clinic, just raised $100 million in a series B round. In August, Maven Clinic, a female-founded firm that focuses on women’s and family health, raised $110 million in a Series D investment, achieving unicorn status.
Although Alpha’s new fundraising is not a mega-round, it is consistent with the pattern. It raises the company’s total capital to $35 million, which includes a $11 million Series A round. SpringRock Ventures, Margo Georgiadis, Outcomes Collective Growth Capital, FMZ Ventures, Samsung Next, Chamaeleon, AV8 Ventures, and GSR Ventures are among the investors.
The prior round of funding aided the company’s expansion: according to Lau, the company went from serving around 10 states to 46, including D.C. It also assisted the organization in increasing the number of conditions that its providers can handle from three to sixty.
The organization will be able to educate and find suppliers that can handle even more situations as a result of this additional round (the most recent addition was polycystic ovarian syndrome). It will also enable the company to transition from direct-to-consumer to business-to-business offerings.
“To bridge the gap, we’ve started talking to health plans and employers,” Lau adds. “We’ve had a lot of interactions with health plans, and we have some very minor employer contracts on the way — in fact, that’s how we originally started thinking about it.”
