Exclusive: Preveta Raises $2M To Coordinate Care For Early Disease Detection

Three months after attending Techstars LA, Preveta inked $2 million in seed funding led by MaC Venture Capital and TSVC.

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Victor Lee, his wife, Shirley Lee, and Steven Hu started the Los Angeles-based company in 2018 to create a data-driven cancer care coordination platform for health care providers focused on improving patient outcomes through value-based care, Victor Lee told Crunchbase News.

The idea came after the Lees helped a friend through her Stage 4 ovarian cancer diagnosis.

“We realized all of the things that should have been done and not done, but we were too slow,” Lee said. “By the time we got to the right doctor and referred to the right specialists, it took three months, and by that time, it was too late.”

Lee, who builds software, and his wife, who is a clinician, began looking into a way to navigate that treatment journey while also bringing knowledge to doctors, nurses and other care providers for early intervention.

How it works

Preveta takes a data-driven and artificial intelligence approach to care coordination for medical practices and hospital systems. Its initial focus is on urology, cancer, particularly prostate cancer, and chronic diseases.

“We gather the clinical protocols that a doctor or clinician has, bring them into an algorithm and then provide information that a nurse could use so that certain protocols are taken off of the provider’s plate,” he added. “The care coordination platform gives them a workflow to follow you in a more specific way. There are also system alerts to make sure those get done.”

The platform launched in early 2020, so the new funding will go toward sales, marketing and creating a brand for Preveta. Currently, the company is working with six large medical groups and 2,000 patients.

Going forward, the company intends to grow its specialties from prostate and bladder cancers into the gastrointestinal space, Lee said.

One of the key measures Preveta is driving is positive outcomes. The company did a data analysis for one of its customers and found during the first quarter, there was a 16 percent increase in early detection of cancer progression.

“Those would have fallen through the cracks because of a missing diagnostic or scan,” Lee said. “For those people, their cancer would have progressed before their next visit, and we got them in early. That’s validation of our approach.”

What investors have to say

Adrian Fenty, managing general partner at MaC Venture Capital, learned about Preveta from their participation in Techstars.

“I love the personal enthusiasm that Victor and Shirley had, as well as the expertise and being personally affected by cancer,” Fenty said in an interview. “At its core, we are confident that it will be a great company because of the team, but the bigger hope is that through AI and their unique use of data for patients, providers and clinicians, that their solution can be used in a broader context, as well as all over the health care arena.”

Also in an interview, Spencer Greene, an investment partner at TSVC, said Preveta’s business spoke to him because he also had personal experience with the problem of care coordination. He called this problem “one that represents the failure of the American health care system.”

Greene believes more companies like Preveta will emerge over the next decade.

“So many people encounter a loved one, or your own situation, that puts you in a place where you are working with a medical professional,” Greene said. “Rather than just focus on the low bar for patient experience, Preveta is going a step further — it is saving lives.”

Correction: A previous version of this story said Preveta raised the funding three years after its participation in Techstars LA, which was incorrect. The funding occurred three months after participation in the program. The company is working with 2,000 patients, not 2,000 providers. The story has also been updated to reflect the final funding amount of $2 million, rather than $1.95 million.

Illustration: Dom Guzman