Evidation Health raises $153M to go deeper into virtual health

The company will use the funding to expand into more virtual care programs

Over the past year, as a result of the pandemic, virtual health grew faster than anyone anticipated; almost immediately, any aspect of the healthcare space that could be done without needing to be face-to-face with a patient went from being a "nice to have" to a "need to have."

One company that benefitted from this shift was Evidation Health, a platform that measures patient status and health outcomes outside the four walls of brick and mortar healthcare facilities; on Monday, the company announced a $153 million Series E funding round, bringing its total amount raised to $259 million. 

"Evidation has been conducting virtual trials for almost a decade now, and COVID accelerated the collective realization of how valuable it is to collect health insights outside of a clinic," Christine Lemke, Evidation's co-founder and co-CEO, told me.

The new funding round was co-led by OMERS Growth Equity and Kaiser Permanente Group Trust, with participation from existing investors, including McKesson Ventures and B Capital Group. In addition, it was revealed that Teresa Lee, Managing Director at OMERS Growth Equity, joined Evidation’s Board of Directors.

"Teresa is a seasoned software and technology growth stage investor with significant domain expertise in the health care sector. She brings experience advising companies who are changing how health care is delivered and will provide important guidance as Evidation works to build on our existing offerings, grow our commercial business, and continue expanding internationally," said Lemke. 

Founded in 2012, Evidation Health collects patient data from over 100 different sources, including wearables and medical devices, such as Apple Health, Fitbit, Epic, and Dexcom. It then analyses patient behavior and health in real time, information that its clients can use to determine which medicines and treatments work best and to more quickly spot significant changes in a patient's health.

Achievement, the company's direct-to-person research platform, currently reaches more than 4 million Americans from all 50 states, and nine out of 10 zip codes in the U.S. Its customers include academic institutions, public health organizations, and medical specialty societies, along with nine of the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies across multiple therapeutic areas, who use the platform to gain insights into the impact of their products. 

For example, Evidation has worked with Eli Lilly and Apple to quantify the potential of using connected devices and wearables for differentiating people with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. Evidation is also providing the technology and study operations behind HEARTLINE, a trial launched by Johnson and John and Apple last year, which explores how technologies like the iPhone and Apple Watch can enable earlier detection of atrial fibrillation. 

Evidation has so far conducted more than 100 real-world studies across therapeutic areas, and last year it reached more than 1 million individuals participating in research and health programs. The company expects to more than double that number this year.

When the company raised its last round of funding, in July 2020, it said it would be using it to expand Achievement into virtual care for the first time; since then, Evidation has launched two virtual health initiatives, one with the American College of Cardiology, and another with Apple and the government of Singapore called LumiHealth. Both of these programs help individuals better monitor their health and provide tools to encourage healthy activities.

The company plans to use the money to expand into more virtual health programs going forward, and what really means for Achievement users is that they will have a wider range of options available to them, Lemke explained.

"They will continue to be able to participate in health research and studies, and now they will also be able to sign up for programs that return actionable insights to them," she said. "Our platform lets customers build, test, and scale research and health programs with unprecedented speed. Achievement enables our customers to see beyond episodic, disconnected data points into continuous, real-life insights."

The funding will also be used to grow the Evidation team, whose headcount now stands at 222 employees; by the end of this year it anticipates that it will have approximately 290 employees, with a focus on engineering roles and additional talent on the Achievement, product management, and regulatory, quality, and clinical teams.

"We’re really pleased with this round and the opportunities it presents for us with existing and new partners. We are laser-focused on developing these exciting new programs for our user base," Lemke said.

"We’ve spent years building Achievement into the most geographically and demographically diverse connected research cohort in the United States. We are the first company that can help digital health and biopharma companies generate evidence about their treatments, and then enable individuals to use that evidence to take actions to manage their health."

(Image source: myachievement.com)