AngelEye Health raises funding to connect parents and children in NICU

The company's solutions include a live-stream video and a portal for parents to talk to care team

Roughly 100,000 babies end up in an Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) every year, while approximately 250,000 children are admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). Those babies and children are often in these units for weeks, if not months, meaning that they are also physically disconnected from their families during that time. This obviously isn't an ideal situation for the baby/child who is separated from their caregiver, or for their parents who are worried about how their child is doing.

That's where AngelEye Health comes in: it's a platform that provides engagement, communication, and education tools for hospital neonatal, pediatric intensive care, and nursery units to that parents can connect to their children, as well as their care teams.

"More engaged and better-educated families lead to more prepared caregivers when these precious babies are ready to go home. Managing all of this is challenging for care teams as their primary role is to care for the neonate's clinical needs," Christopher Rand, the company's CEO, told VatorNews.

On Thursday, AngelEye announced that it completed its Series B funding round led by Brad Whitmore and Mountain Group Partners, with participation from SeedtoB Capital and the Rash Family Office. While the exact amount raised was not disclosed, the company said that the new funding brings its total funding to date to approximately $20 million.

Launched in 2014, AngelEye's solution provides four products, including PatientConnect, through which physicians and the clinical team provide care updates and progress notes and specific education on care needs to the parents of the children in the NICU and PICU. For example, a physical therapist can use the system to help parent understand the services they provide and offer visual guidance so parents can learn how to perform needed therapy in the hospital or at home.

Another product is called OnlineEducation, which is a platform for clinicians to assign necessary education modules, allowing parents to view the information from anywhere, and monitor progress toward discharge. The company also provides a service called MilkTracker, a milk scanning and feeding management solution that supports lactation through a parent-facing app, and helps to reduce errors and save money.

Finally, the company offers CameraSystem, which brings live-streaming video of the patient to family members anywhere, anytime, on any device.

"Our technology address the need for connection, easy communication, and readily available education. We reduce staff time devoted to many non-clinical task while ensuring parents, and extended family, can bond with their infant, are informed about progress and care plans, and have ready access to the education needed to ensure a successful transition home," said Rand. 

In the past three years, AngelEye has more than tripled its annual revenue, and expanded its client list to over 125 partners across 27 states. This year, the company says it is on pace to deliver nearly 10 million virtual bedside visits.

The company plans to use its new funding to expand its team; AngelEye has grown its employee base to 39, a 5x increase since 2018. It also plans to expand its product research and development function.

"We are in the process of doing some final diligence on some internally developed services.  These have been driven by conversations and discovery with our hospital partners.  We are also evaluating some potential acquisition opportunities that we are very excited about," said Rand.

"Our goal is to provide services to every NICU, PICU, and nursery in the United States. We believe that our services could help every unit that is out there."

(Image source: angeleyehealth.com)