Patient support platform Redi.Health raises new funding

The company builds tools specifically for patients with multiple chronic illnesses

In 2018, more than half of US adults had at least 1 chronic condition, and more than 27% had multiple chronic conditions. The most like to be affected were women, non-Hispanic white adults, adults aged 65 or older, and those living in rural areas.

Redi.Health helps these patients manage their health: the company builds tools specifically for patients with multiple chronic illnesses, which it then combines with more specialized support services through partnerships with various stakeholders in the healthcare industry, including specialty pharmacies, pharma manufacturers, or insurance company.

On Monday, Redi announced it raised an undisclosed amount of growth capital led by Refinery Ventures, with participation from repeat investors MCP, Rev1 Ventures, and M25. This The company had previously raised a seed funding round in October of 2021, which was also undisclosed.

"Refinery Ventures very quickly latched on to our mission and we felt like they understood and were motivated by our approach and our vision. Their founder, Tim Schlegel, was an operator and a founder himself, and so he brings a remarkable perspective to the organization and our already a very robust and sophisticated syndicate. He rounds it out with some of his expertise and we’re really happy to take on another Midwest investor, especially one in Ohio, as we are an Ohio Company as well," Luke Buchanan, co-founder and CEO of Redi, said in an interview. 

The reason that Redi has, so far, not disclosed any of its funding round is that it wants to instead focus on the impact it has on patients, rather than funding numbers, he explained.

"We always want our mission and our message to be focused on that impact. So, that's the reason why we have not disclosed that. We solely want to focus on the patients that we're impacting, the therapeutic areas that we help improve," said Buchanan.

The Columbus, Ohio-based Redi builds tools specifically for patients with multiple chronic illnesses, and then combines them with more specialized support services, which might come from a variety of different stakeholders in the healthcare industry, such as specialty pharmacy, a pharma manufacturer, or an insurance company. Redi partners with these stakeholders so they direct their patients to download the app, which is free for the patient; patients can also download it on their own without a referral. 

Once a patient downloads the app, they go through the signup process, which is only three steps and takes just one minute, requiring patients to answer questions about what medications that they're on, what conditions that they have, and then some demographic information. After that, the platform adapts to that patient, bringing them relevant articles and tools that relate to their specific disease states.

The app also aggregates other elements of their health, including exercise, diet tracking, medication tracking, and symptom tracking. That means the platform can serve back insights to the patient about their health.

In July, Redi partnered with LabCorp, integrating Redi's digital support platform into Labcorp Drug Development's Patient Access Solutions as a way to offer patients, and their care providers, communications channels and tools.

"That was a major step for us through our distribution channels and partnership network, which is a huge, huge part of what Redi does to reach patients at different points in their therapeutic journey," Buchanan said.

Since then, Redi has more than tripled the amount of therapeutic areas that it's now with its pharmaceutical manufacturer partners, with a greater focus on rare genetic disorders, or things that have extraordinarily highly complex journeys for patients. For example, there are a number of different oncology medications that treat very niche forms of cancer, and that's primarily where Redi built out the rare disease aspect.

When it comes to ROI for patients, the company likes to evaluate is time to therapy, meaning how long it take them to actually get access to the first pill. One particular medication, for example, saw a reduction from 12 to seven days, however in some cases it can take patients a month to get their medication before using Redi.

The company also helps increase medication adherence: that reduction in time to therapy results in patients being 57% more likely to be established on therapy and general month-to-month adherence for a Redi patient is upwards of 85%.

"These are life saving therapies and patients that are onboarded onto Redi are able to get that first fill of the medication in seven days. So, it's a very significant reduction in time therapy for patients. And so, from an ROI perspective, we're saving that patient time and peace of mind," said Buchanan.

That translates into ROI for the manufacturers as well: if it's a medication that Redi is partnered with, the longer a patient stays on that therapy, the longer that manufacturer gets to support them, which obviously is better outcomes for the patient, but then also increased medication moved and sold by the manufacturer. 

Now that it has this new funding, Redi plans to use it to expand into more manufacturers and more distribution channels and partners, which requires an expansion of the team. The capital will also be used to build out the company's set, which will be centered around affordability and helping them get access, regardless of the medication that they're on, to support that they may not know about.

That will include the ability for patients to easily understand the support that's available to them, including foundations and government assistance programs that may be able to help them if they’ve fallen on a financial issue.

"Our vision with Redi is always, in the minimum amount of time, the patient should be able to figure out the resources they have available to them to overcome whatever barrier they're encountering. And so, this is a way for us to further that on the affordability side," said Buchanan.

"We want to continue to grow in the space so that means continued partnerships with pharmaceutical manufacturers, getting as many patients as possible into our platform to take advantage of that support that they may not know that they're eligible for, and then one of the primary focuses over the next few years will be continuing to build out our partnership network."