Austin-Based Remedy Raises $10M For Telemedicine Platform And House Calls

Telehealth startup Remedy has closed on a $10 million Series A round led by Austin-based Santé Ventures.

Subscribe to the Crunchbase Daily

Dr. Jeremy Gabrysch launched Remedy in early 2016 with the goal of providing “convenient and affordable access” to medical care from a patient’s home, or serve as “an Uber for house calls.” The Austin-based company initially started out providing on-demand house calls before pivoting to a traditional telemedicine model that starts first with virtual visits and then can be escalated to an in-person home visit if needed. The company also operates a walk-in clinic in its home base of Austin to which it can also refer patients. Remedy’s platform also includes 24/7 access to nurse triage and lab test visits.

Remedy currently provides its telehealth services in Texas and California but has plans to expand into other markets, according to Gabrysch. The Series A takes its total raised to a known $12.5 million, according to Crunchbase data.

Dr. Gabrysch had worked as an emergency room physician in Austin for several years before he and his wife, Christina, moved to Ethiopia in 2011. There, he served as chief medical officer for a 150-bed teaching hospital and realized how wasteful Americans could be of the resources available to them.

“I had seen people coming to the ER with non-emergency issues because they couldn’t get into their primary-care doctor,” he told me in 2016 when I interviewed him for an article for Crain’s. “I also would often help out friends or family that didn’t have insurance or had high deductibles by going over to treat them or their children. We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to offer this to everyone?’ ”

The company has served “tens of thousands” of patients since its inception, according to Gabrysch. Its focus is on working with self-funded employers (including a Fortune 500 company), which make up a large part of its business. Remedy plans to use the new capital to expand to other states as well as broaden its technology platform, do some hiring, and open additional walk-in clinics.

“We want to scale and to grow as much as possible going to be in as many states as we need to be,” Gabrysch told Crunchbase News.

I asked him how Remedy differentiates itself from the host of other telemedicine startups out there, and Gabrysch said he believes it “offers a broader suite of services.” It also does not outsource its care to third parties, and instead hires providers to work as Remedy employees.

Santé Ventures Managing Directors Dr. Joe Cunningham and Doug French are joining Remedy’s board as part of the financing.

“After reviewing numerous telemedicine companies in recent years, we feel confident Remedy can scale beyond traditional primary care delivery and is well-positioned to dramatically lower costs and improve outcomes for high-cost procedures and chronic disease management,” said Cunningham, in a written statement. “The market potential for coordinated care delivery and chronic disease management from a telemedicine platform is the next evolution of this technology.”

Last month, we reported on how Santé Ventures, an Austin-based healthcare and life science-focused venture firm, had raised $250 million in its third fund.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias