Twentyeight Health, a telehealth company providing affordable access and convenience for reproductive and sexual health, today announced that it has raised $8.3 million in Pre-Series A funding. The round included multiple mission-driven funds: RH Capital, Seae Ventures, Impact Engine, Acumen America, Stardust Equity, Gratitude Railroad, California Health Care Foundation, Penn Medicine-Wharton Fund for Health, and Great Oaks Venture Capital, and strategic angel investors including Andrey Ostrovsky, former Chief Medical Officer of US Medicaid Program and Elina Onitskansky, former SVP & Head of Strategy at Molina. Many of Twentyeight Health’s previous investors also participated in the round, including SteelSky Ventures, Third Prime, Town Hall Ventures, GingerBread Capital, and Algaé Ventures.
“Telehealth has incredible potential to improve healthcare for all, but according to data from both Rock Health and the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, telehealth in the U.S. is used primarily by wealthier Americans living in urban areas,” said Amy Fan, co-founder of Twentyeight Health. “Twentyeight Health is defying this trend as the first women’s virtual healthcare platform supporting the full spectrum of patients, focusing on inclusive care for medically underserved groups including lower-income individuals and BIPOC communities.”
Added Bruno Van Tuykom, co-founder of Twentyeight Health, “Over 55% of Twentyeight Health’s users are from low-income backgrounds, 58% identify as BIPOC and over 60% didn’t have prior access to prescribed birth control methods. With this new funding, we look forward to showing the world that telehealth can play an important role in expanding access to equitable care.”
Since launching in December 2018, Twentyeight Health has taken a wide range of steps to increase access to fundamental healthcare for women from underserved communities, including:
- Building platform designed to be inclusive of underserved communities: Twentyeight Health leverages multiple modes of telehealth, including audio consultations and direct messaging with physicians, to provide privacy, discretion and a seamless experience regardless of the individual’s access to high-speed internet or housing situation.
- Focus on affordability: Today, one in three doctors in the US are not accepting new Medicaid patients. Twentyeight Health accepts Medicaid in 29 of the states it’s available. Additionally, they partner with non-profits to provide free healthcare services to individuals in financial need.
- Creating capabilities to service rural America: Twentyeight is expanding access to women’s healthcare across rural America, where nearly two thirds of patients live in primary care deserts and maternal mortality rates are 1.6x higher when compared to urban areas.
- Providing accessible ongoing care: Twentyeight Health provides ongoing care at no extra cost through unlimited doctor follow up messages to discuss issues such as updating prescriptions or addressing potential side effects.
- Working with culturally competent physicians: In order to ensure that everyone feels comfortable using Twentyeight Health’s telehealth services, the company works with physicians who have experience providing care to low-income patients and in BIPOC communities.
- Infusing charitable giving into business model: Twentyeight Health provides free birth control for uninsured women in financial need through a partnership with Bedsider’s Contraceptive Access Fund, and donates 2% of revenues to Bedsider and the National Institute for Reproductive Health.
“As a board certified physician still practicing and with a lot of Medicaid experience, I love how much Twentyeight Health is focused and designed for underserved communities,” said Andrey Ostrovsky, former Chief Medical Officer of US Medicaid Program. “I am impressed by the impact they have had to date and I am excited to see how much positive change — on access, health outcomes and cost savings — they will bring to payers and their members.”
Twentyeight Health has raised this funding during a time of significant growth for the company. Over the last two years, Twentyeight Health has expanded across the U.S. — growing from six to 34 states and covering more than 85 percent of women of reproductive age. Twentyeight Health also launched a Spanish language platform to make its telehealth services more accessible for over 40 million native Spanish speakers in the US, and expanded its telehealth services beyond birth control to herpes treatment, prenatal vitamins, and the morning after pill. Twentyeight Health will use its new funding to continue to grow its geographic footprint, expand payer partnerships, and provide additional women’s health care services.