After developing a network of telehealth, diagnostics and pharmacies for consumers, digital health company Truepill is targeting healthcare incumbents like health payers, providers and employer groups.
The new focus is buoyed by the close of its $142 million Series D funding round, led by an undisclosed partner, with participation from existing investors Initialized Capital and TI Platform Management.
The latest investment nearly doubles the San Mateo-based company’s venture capital funding raised since its inception five years ago to $256 million — which includes a $75 million Series C round last August — and pushes Truepill into unicorn territory with a valuation of $1.6 billion.
Since its Series C, Truepill has been busy: it debuted its telehealth and diagnostic services, and launched its COVID-19 wellness program and virtual pharmacy e-commerce offerings. To date, it has shipped nearly 10 million prescriptions, processed approximately 1 million diagnostic tests and facilitated more than 50,000 telehealth visits per week.
“We were just launching our diagnostics and telehealth in August, and now we are building on that,” Umar Afridi, CEO and co-founder of Truepill, told TechCrunch. “We are now expanding who we work with. Initially it was direct-to-consumer, but now we want to work with larger entities, including health plans, payers, life science companies and providers.”
The company’s “big focus is continuing the vision of transforming healthcare,” said Sid Viswanathan, president and co-founder of Truepill. Going after the healthcare incumbents is a signal that the company is prepared to service the whole industry, but it may take a few years for some of these partnerships to actualize, he added.
In addition to extending its customer base, the founders say the new funding represents a “hyper growth moment” for the company, which is in position to bring in some $300 million in revenue this year, Viswanathan said.
It will enable Truepill to add hundreds of new positions across its organization, including engineering, business development and pharmacy as it opens six new pharmacy and over-the-counter fulfillment facilities in California, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania by next year.
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With regard to the company’s new valuation, Viswanathan explained that the company hasn’t been one to chase the unicorn milestone, but did say reaching the $1.6 billion valuation is “reflective of our ambition.” It also has a pipeline of new projects on the horizon.
“We still have a lot in store for 2022,” he added. “It is still early but if we start to show what we can do, we will be helping 330 million people in the U.S. that deal with healthcare, and we know where we want to see the change take place.”
Meanwhile, Garry Tan, founder and managing partner at Initialized Capital, says Truepill now has the reach and scale that it can work across the whole spectrum of healthcare, similar to what Stripe is doing in fintech.
He noted that he “was impressed” by how the company went from a core pharmacy service in 2016 to providing software now for telehealth and diagnostics, calling it “unusual” in healthcare to be able to find success in multiple areas.
In addition, Tan believes that what Truepill is doing in the direct-to-consumer market is giving people choices. They can continue to work with their primary care provider, but for different types of treatment, could tap into remote patient monitoring or another level of care through Truepill.
“We often worry about access, but Truepill is in an interesting spot,” he added. “We talk in technology that you are either arming the ‘rebels’ or the ‘empire,’ and in their case, they work with both. They are helping incumbents roll out a 50,000-person telehealth visit program, and on the flip side, enabling new startups, who can do this themselves, to be able to save time and money.”
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