Telehealth provider Fruit Street Telehealth (Fruit Street) has raised $3 million in Series A funding, bringing its total number of physician investors to more than 160. The startup plans to utilize the latest round of funding to further develop its telehealth platform with its joint venture partner VSee whose video technology is already embedded within Fruit Street’s platform.
Additionally, the funding will increase Fruit Street’s digital advertising budget for sales and marketing initiatives, product development and to help fund telehealth clinical trials with the Fruit Street product to prove clinical and cost effectiveness of this model of healthcare delivery.
Founded in 2014, Fruit Street provides telehealth software to healthcare providers allowing physicians to monitor the health, diet and lifestyle of their patients through HIPAA compliant video consultations, wearable devices and mobile apps. Using portable devices, patients can also explore their blood test results online and share their visual food diary with their healthcare provider.
Fruit Street is a public benefit corporation, a specific type of corporation which allows social impact to be a charter purpose, in addition to the traditional corporate call of maximizing profit for shareholders. The public benefit purpose and social mission of the company is to “Prevent and treat lifestyle related disease using telehealth, wearable devices, and mobile applications.”
“The round is currently oversubscribed beyond $3M because physicians believe in our product and our vision. We have thus decided to expand our Series A to $4M of capital raised. We already have $750K of commitments from new and current physician investors to participate in this round. The more physicians we have participating in our medical think tank, promoting the product with their colleagues, and investing in Fruit Street, the stronger our company will become,” said Laurence Girard, CEO and Founder of Fruit Street Telehealth.
Fruit Street has conducted one of the most successful physician crowdfunding campaigns in history. The company was founded in May of 2014 and has raised an average of $220,000 per month from physician investors via its LinkedIn campaigns since its inception.
The latest round brings Fruit Street’s total funding to date to $7.4M which includes a previous $1.8M equity round and $1.6M round of long term debt from existing physician investors. Fruit Street now has an international footprint with customers and investors in the United States, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Ireland, Mexico, and England.
