Healthtech startup b.well scores $16M Series A funding to provide consumers a new front end to healthcare

b.well Connected Health, a Baltimore, Maryland-based healthtech startup and a provider of platform designed to provide consumers a new front end to healthcare, has closed $16 million Series A investment to enhance patient experience and improve population health. The round, which brings the company’s total funding to over $27 million, was led by UnityPoint Health Ventures, the venture capital arm of UnityPoint Health. Other backers include ThedaCare – a leading Wisconsin-based community health system, and Well Ventures – a subsidiary of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc (WBA). The startup previously raised $11.5 million in seed funding.

Founded in 2015 by Kristen Valdes, b.well unlocks new predictive insights and drives lifelong engagement for health plans and employers large and small. The company’s mission is to reduce the prevalence of avoidable chronic disease and make healthcare simple, personal, and affordable.  In conjunction with the funding, b.well also announced that  Austin Duke, PhD, Senior Venture Associate, UnityPoint Health Ventures, and Imran Andrabi, MD, President and CEO, ThedaCare, will join its Board of Directors.

The b.well Connected Health platform integrates data, insights and partners into a single, customized solution, enabling individuals to take control of their healthcare experience. It provides the healthcare eco-system with a long overdue middleware, connecting separate, often complex and already existing programs, to achieve interoperability and aggregation.

The platform works horizontally across the system to consolidate a 360-degree view of consumers’ real-time data, and vertically to integrate the rapidly growing point solutions to provide timely healthcare services and support to consumers that is relevant to their needs. As a result, b.well transforms the way consumers interact with their health care by empowering them with a ‘first-screen’ mobile platform to manage all of their healthcare in one location that is persistent, portable, and personalized.

“Over the past five years b.well has successfully partnered with self-insured employers, payers, health systems and providers by providing them the software to configure and launch their own unique digital health strategy with a sharp focus on consumer experience. Building on this strong foundation, and with increased demand for digital delivery of health services that support population health and value-based care models, we are now focusing on our growth strategy,” said Kristen Valdes, Founder and CEO, b.well Connected Health. “We welcome the opportunity to work with our new directors to advance our mission to help individuals take control of their healthcare experience.”

The three strategic investors will work together with b.well and their respective organizations to enhance patient experience and improve population health.

“Our goal is to make care easier and more personal,” said Matthew Warrens, Managing Director of Innovation, UnityPoint Health. “b.well works to solve the fragmented and siloed health experience that consumers, including myself, have struggled with by putting the consumer at the center of their health journey. This is exactly the kind of work that’s going to move the care experience needle for our patients. We’re thrilled to partner with b.well on this important effort.”

“Aligned with our mission of improving the health of our community, our partnership with b.well will empower patients by putting their health information at their fingertips and providing peace of mind,” said Imran A. Andrabi, MD, ThedaCare President and Chief Executive Officer. “On this journey to population health, we will take our expertise outside of our walls and provide people with tools to live their best life.”