What You Should Know:
– Buoy Health raises $37.5 million in Series C funding to expand it’s AI-powered healthcare navigation platform, bringing its total raised to date at $66.5M.
– Buoy will use the proceeds to further build out its IP with respect to artificial intelligence and other technologies, as well as grow the Buoy team.
Buoy Health, a Boston, MA-based AI-powered healthcare navigation platform, today announced the completion of a $37.5 million Series C funding round. Cigna Ventures and Humana led the funding round and were joined by Optum Ventures, WR Hambrecht + Co, and Trustbridge Partners. To date, Buoy has raised $66.5 million.
AI-Powered Healthcare Navigation
Today, hospitals and insurance companies are increasingly investing in digital health innovations like Buoy to solve problems related to accessing the healthcare system and helping patients to get to the right care setting on the first attempt. By addressing the problem that happens when people attempt to search their symptoms online,
Founded in 2014 by a team of doctors and computer scientists working at the Harvard Innovation Laboratory, Buoy Health uses AI technology to provide personalized clinical support the moment an individual has a health concern. Buoy navigates people through the healthcare system intelligently, delivering triage at scale, and connecting them with the right care endpoints at the right time based on self-reported symptoms.
Expansion Plans
Buoy will use the proceeds to further build out its IP with respect to artificial intelligence and other technologies, as well as grow the Buoy team. The fundraise will advance Buoy’s clinical and insurance-based navigation capabilities to help move the individual to a more consumer-friendly healthcare journey.
Recent Milestones
As of the Series C close, Buoy has helped nearly one million Americans assess symptoms and locate the best places for them to seek care in their community during the COVID-19 pandemic. As one of the first digital health companies in the U.S. to respond to the pandemic, Buoy was an early leader in connecting individuals to care at the right time, saving more than 29,764 medical professionals’ hours, or 1,240 days.
Buoy also launched Back With Care, an employer platform that provides health resource navigation, risk assessment and personalized guidance for the transition back into the workplace for employers and employees across the country. With numerous tech companies and large healthcare organizations launching consumer-centric offerings to tackle this issue, Buoy remains committed to humanizing the healthcare journey and assessing the COVID-19 risk in connection with getting back to physical offices.
“We are honored by the continued support and commitment in Buoy from many of the industry’s most influential insurers and are proud to be working with a group of investors that truly believe in our mission to make healthcare more personalized and convenient,” said Andrew Le, MD, CEO and co-founder of Buoy Health.
Le continued, “Buoy was founded on the idea that turning to the internet for answers when you are sick can be overwhelming, confusing, and inefficient. I’m proud of the work we’ve done to help more than 9 million individuals make more informed decisions for their health, and the tools we have built to help consumers and employers navigate COVID-19. From the moment an individual has questions about their health, to ensuring they get the support they need as they seek care, Buoy will serve as the sidewalk to every possible front door of care, navigating the individual through their healthcare journey.”
