Amino, an online healthcare platform that estimates costs and helps users find doctors with expertise in specific conditions, has raised $ 25 million in a Series C round round of funding led by Highland Capital, with participation from Accel, Aspect Ventures, CRV, Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, Pilot Wall Group, among others.
Founded out of San Francisco in 2013, Amino (not to be confused with Amino Apps) promises to “connect everyone to better, more affordable care,” through an online search portal that provides data on “nearly every doctor” across the U.S. It serves as an online directory of doctors while giving users an idea about costs, while it also enables them to make appointments with specific doctors and hospitals.
Above: Amino
Though Amino is aimed at individual healthcare consumers, the company is also targeting employers as it looks to help create “a more efficient healthcare marketplace with higher quality, lower cost, and more convenient care for everyone,” the company said.
Indeed, alongside today’s funding news, Amino announced that it’s opening up to businesses on an invite-only basis for now. Through new Amino Plus accounts, employees will be able to track their healthcare plan including deductibles and out-of-pocket costs for any pending procedures. Furthermore, Amino is also opening its search and booking smarts to healthcare providers, including hospitals and physician networks, who will be able to use Amino’s booking platform to manage appointments.
Prior to now, Amino had raised around $ 20 million in funding, and with its latest cash influx it says it will turbo-charge its efforts to create “a single source of truth for American healthcare, where everyone — consumers, doctors, hospitals, payers — has access to the same information about access, cost, and quality,” according to a company statement.
“There are billions of healthcare searches on the open web each year and thus billions of opportunities to reach people in the moments they’re researching and making healthcare decisions,” explained Amino cofounder and CEO David Vivero. “We create products that meet millions of people where they are, with unbiased, personalized, and actionable information that isn’t locked away behind portals or muddled by complex industry terms. This type of transparency is the first major milestone we as an industry must reach, if we are to create an efficient healthcare marketplace where consumers are truly empowered.”
The healthcare technology industry is ripe for investment. Last week, Cognoa raised $ 11.6 million for its digital health platform that spots early signs of autism in kids, while Accolade recently closed a $ 94 million funding round for a platform that guides employees through the “costly, complex, and fragmented” world of health care. Elsewhere, Livongo raised $ 52.5 million to help people with chronic conditions, while Vida Health closed a $ 18 million round to connect people with chronic diseases to health coaches.
