Strive Health, a value-based kidney care company, has raised $550 million in Series D funding, the company announced on Tuesday. The financing is $300 million in equity funding and $250 million in debt financing.
Denver, Colorado-based Strive Health works with payers, health systems, primary care groups and nephrologists. The company provides at-home and virtual support for chronic kidney disease, end-stage kidney disease, dialysis and kidney transplant. It leverages technology and AI to identify what disease stage patients are in and what the best interventions are. It also connects the patients with a care team that includes a nurse practitioner, registered nurse, case manager and care coordinator.
The financing was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), and included participation from CVS Health Ventures, CapitalG, Echo Health Ventures, Town Hall Ventures, Redpoint and affiliates of BlackRock. Hercules Capital led the debt funding.
“We recognize that clinician-led healthcare solutions with meaningful scale are where AI implementations will have the most impact when it comes to improving outcomes for chronic disease management and preventive care — but those companies also happen to be exceedingly rare,” said Mohamad Makhzoumi, co-CEO of NEA, in a statement. “NEA remains a proud supporter of Strive’s mission of deploying its innovative care model to slow the progression of kidney disease and we are excited at the potential for Strive’s impact to grow exponentially with this more than half a billion-dollar capital raise.”
The funding will be used to invest in AI, grow its business with both current and new partners, and expand its care delivery to adjacent conditions (such as congestive heart failure), said Chris Riopelle, co-founder and CEO of Strive.
When asked about the company’s exit strategy, Riopelle said the company is currently just focused on growth.
“Of course, all of the normal paths exist: other big investors, public company, other strategic investors, but we’re not focused on that today,” he said in an interview. “We’re just focused on the path at hand, and given this new capital position, [exiting] is just not something we have to think about every day, which is great.”
Currently, more than 35 million people in the U.S. battle kidney disease, and 90% are unaware of their condition until it gets more serious and requires dialysis or a transplant. Strive believes its model can move the needle on this stat. Since the company was founded in 2018, it has completed more than 1.3 million patient touchpoints and created more than $400 million in savings for its partners.
“Seven and a half years ago, we set out to transform kidney care in America and to fundamentally change the standard of care,” Riopelle said. “What we knew was that these patients could be helped prior to ending up on dialysis. We believed that using data analytics and machine learning and AI, we could identify patients sooner in the process, deploy a team … to engage that patient in a very focused way.”
Strive Health isn’t the only company providing kidney care support. Others include Monogram Health and Somatus.
Photo: Abscent84, Getty Images
