US-based kidney disease care service Somatus received more than $325m on Wednesday in a series E round featuring health insurers Anthem and BlueCross BlueShield Association, prescription manager Optum and hospital operator Inova Health System.
Asset manager Wellington Management led the round, which included financial services and investment group Fidelity Management & Research as well as RA Capital Management, GIC Private, Deerfield Management, Flare Capital Partners and Longitude Capital.
Blue Venture Fund and Optum Ventures represented BlueCross BlueShield Association and Optum while Anthem and Inova Health System invested directly. The round took the company’s overall funding to about $500m and valued it above $2.5bn.
Founded in 2016, Somatus provides home care services for chronic kidney or end-stage renal disease patients, teaming up with health insurers, health systems, nephrology and primary care providers. Its technology helps stop further disease development that often entails costly emergency room visits and hospitalisations.
The company’s mission includes promoting home dialysis therapy, an underutilised modality capable of largely replace in-centre treatment. The money will be used to conduct real-time patient monitoring and improve its care tracking and forecasting technology.
Somatus intends to offer its services to some 150,000 insured patients across 34 US states this year, through government-sponsored medical plans such as Medicare, Medicare Advantage and Medicaid in addition to private insurance schemes.
Ikenna Okezie, co-founder and CEO of Somatus, said: “Since our inception, Somatus has always been committed to bringing superior evidence-based integrated care to patients with kidney disease which delays disease progression, improves quality of life and lowers total cost of care.
“This investment puts us in a great position to fund the expansion of our proven care model and continue building a nationwide network of providers and connected patients, who alongside our care teams are working together to improve lives and transform the industry.”
Okezie, who was born in Nigeria, told the Wall Street Journal kidney-related health equity issues are especially affecting people of colour in the United States, citing local non-profit organisation National Kidney Foundation’s findings that kidney failure is increasing in patients from black and Latin American backgrounds.
Okezie further pointed out that socioeconomic factors and lifestyle have a significant impact on kidney disease care, and those with unfavourable social and financial circumstances often do not get access to timely treatments or medicines.
Somatus works with health insurance providers to identify local medical professionals who can provide in-home dietary and renal consultation and medication services for insured patients with kidney disease.
Anthem reportedly participated in a $60m series D round for the company in June 2021, a year after a $64m series C co-led by Optum Ventures, Longitude Capital and Deerfield Management and backed by Blue Venture Fund, Flare Capital and Town Hall Ventures.
Inova Health and Blue Venture Fund (then called BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners) contributed to Somatus’ $11m series B round, in 2018, which was led by Flare Capital and which also featured an unnamed innovation group. It had received $5m the previous year, according to a securities filing.
Image courtesy of Somatus, Inc.
