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Founders love to build businesses around what they know, and Frank Westermann and Anton Kittelberger know about diabetes.
They met and bonded because of type 1 diabetes – Westermann was diagnosed over 25 years ago – and launched the MySugr app for diabetes self-management in 2012 (they won a TC pitch in 2011). Four years later, Westermann moved from Austria to the United States to introduce MySugr in the United States before the company was acquired by Roche for $ 100 million in 2017.
The couple moved on to their next trip, also into diabetes, starting at 9 a.m.health in April, a virtual diabetes clinic designed to provide people living with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes with access to personalized care and affordable medicines from their homes. The 9h.health clinic opened in August.
Today, the San Diego-based company announced a $ 3.7 million funding round from Founders Fund, Define Ventures, Speedinvest and iSeed Ventures to target 1 in 3 people living with diabetes in the United States, a Westermann told TechCrunch.
“We understand the daily challenges that people with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes face,” he added. “Access to care is the real issue, and rather than letting patients wait weeks for an appointment, we send a kit with tests to your home, and you send it back to us. “
9h.health debuted in Texas and California and is now available in 33 states. He finds patients through digital outreach, community work and hospitals.
Even with insurance, the average person living with diabetes spends about $ 16,750 per year on medical bills, and the costs are about 2.3 times higher than if they didn’t have the disease. Instead, patients can subscribe to 9am.health starting at $ 25 per month, which includes online prescription shipping and unlimited personal health care. Supplements include drugs to manage diabetes, hypertension, or hyperlipidemia, and home lab tests.
Westermann sees other companies working in diabetes, but says 9am.health is unique in providing “a digital gateway to all diabetes care”, while others are focus on specific pain points. In taking this whole approach, he sees an opportunity to move beyond diabetes to the general area of chronic disease, as many people living with diabetes – 98% of Americans in fact – also have other co-morbidities like this. high blood pressure, high cholesterol and mental health issues, he added. .
The new funding will allow the company to grow its team and carve out a portion of the digital diabetes market share that was valued at $ 13 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow 18.8% per year through 2027. .9am.health will also invest in advancing its virtual screening capability and expanding the types of medications it can offer.
9h.health diabetes kit
“We want to break down barriers and make care as easy as possible and managing diabetes is part of life,” Westermann said. “When you live with a chronic illness, it’s an everyday thing, and sometimes you feel good and other days you don’t. That’s why we named the company 9am.health, because you can wake up at 9am and start your diabetes journey all over again.
Lynne Chou O’Keefe, Founder and Managing Partner of Define Ventures, says the future of healthcare will be more consumer-driven and wrapped around the patient care journey. She considers 9am.health to be the leader in this type of care with a platform that brings together education, community, coaching and direct-to-consumer care.
Chou O’Keefe has invested in healthcare his entire VC career and served on Livongo’s board of directors for four years. Through this experience, she learned how patients struggle to make their care decisions and finds that the founders of 9am.health have a similar deep expertise and understanding in the field of diabetes, particularly with the success that they had with MySugr.
“The last place you should receive health care is the doctor’s office, while the first place should be wherever you are,” she added. “It’s a very different way of what the health care system is today. We think people want to manage their diabetes, but then move on and live their lives. “
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