Prescription-focused Waltz Health launched Tuesday with $35.4 million in Series A funding. The round was led by GV, with participation from Define Ventures, Echo Health Ventures, Blue Venture Fund, Byers Capital, Twine Ventures and individual healthcare executive investors.
The startup’s first product is called Marketplace Search, a search engine that pharmacies can provide to their consumers that utilizes data from different drug discount programs to find lower-cost medications. It plans to use the capital to scale the business, hire new team members and invest in product development.
“We are working with the existing drug supply chain structure to realign incentives, lower prescription drug prices and give power back to healthcare consumers. Our mission begins with giving consumers visibility into available programs to save money on life-saving medications by partnering with their pharmacies,” Mark Thierer, cofounder and CEO of Waltz Health, said in a statement.
Thierer served as CEO of pharmacy benefit manager OptumRx after UnitedHealth Group acquired fellow PBM Catamaran, where he was chairman and CEO.
“Our strategy is to deliver software-driven solutions to solve the biggest pharmaceutical challenges consumers and payers face. Our Waltz Health technology team has a reputation for creating software at scale to solve the toughest problems in today’s PBM market.”
Impiricus scored $3 million in a seed funding round led by FCA Venture Partners with participation from Surface Ventures for its physician virtual assistant.
According to the startup’s website, its app builds a dashboard of physician tasks, delivers educational resources and connects to an in-person team that can handle patient requests like working with specialty pharmacies and manufacturers to find lower-cost medications.
“FCA Venture Partners is committed to identifying and supporting healthcare technology companies that are poised to deliver significant value through a breakthrough solution, and to do so while building a sustainable business model,” FCA Venture Partners’ Todd Johnson said in a statement.
“Impiricus clearly fits this category. Their outstanding leadership has developed novel tools for pharmaceutical companies and physicians to more effectively and efficiently connect in order to better serve their patients.”
Health tech venture capital firm Flare Capital Partners announced Tuesday it had closed its third fund with a total of $350 million.
The VC said its investors are interested in technologies for value-based care, mobile tools, big data analytics and secure infrastructure.
ncG1vNJzZmhqZGy7psPSmqmorZ6Zwamx1qippZxemLyue8eemKWsmGK7psPSaK6apKSveqmxwKWroWWilra0sdJmpKiqlWLBqa3NZmpupV2bvLN5w6usoGWTpMC1ecyaqaSdpKW5oq%2FEZpinnF2ivLOxjJ2goKGklrlutMSao62gXZvCr7DIp56sZw%3D%3D