US-based kidney disease therapy developer Cricket Health has raised $83.5m in series B funding from investors including health insurer Blue Shield of California and healthcare provider Cigna.
Valtruis, an investment platform for private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, led the round, which included Oak HC/FT and K2 HealthVentures, while Cigna participated through its Cigna Ventures subsidiary.
Founded in 2015, Cricket provides speciality care management for patients suffering from chronic kidney and renal diseases. It has built a machine learning tool dubbed StageSmart and pGFR, a predicted glomerular filtration rate measurement technology that helps assess kidney function.
The round brought the company’s overall equity and debt financing to $120m, and the proceeds will help it expand across the United States.
Cigna Ventures had already taken part in a $24m series A round for Cricket in 2018 that was led by Oak HC/FT and backed by LifeForce Capital, iSeed Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, First Round Capital, Box Group, Nexus Ventures, Seven Peaks Ventures, Aberdare Management and various individuals.
The company had received $1.1m from undisclosed investors in 2016, according to a securities filing. First Round, Box Group, Nexus Ventures, Seven Peaks, Aberdare Management and angel investors Jeff Weiner were all named as existing backers at the time of the series A round.
Tom Richards, senior vice-president and global lead for Cigna’s strategy and business development group, said: “In our partnership with Cricket, we have been able to bring even more affordability, predictability and simplicity to our customers with kidney disease.”
