As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, investors are continuing to put their eggs in the telemedicine basket, betting patients will be turning to virtual healthcare long after the outbreak is over.
The latest new investment in the thriving industry is in Thirty Madison, an NYC startup that offers direct-to-consumer treatments for hair loss, migraines and chronic acid reflux. The company recently announced it raised $47 million in a round led by Polaris Partners, with participation from Johnson & Johnson Innovation, the venture capital arm of the health product giant. Existing investors Maveron and Northzone also contributed to the round.
Founded by Steven Gutentag and Demetri Karagas, the three-year-old company began offering hair loss treatment through its first brand Keeps in 2018 and has gone on to help hundreds of thousands of customers, according to Thirty Madison. The company launched Cove to help treat migraines last year and then Evens for acid reflux a few months later. In response to the pandemic, it also began offering urgent care consultations.
This latest funding brings Thirty Madison’s total money raised to $70 million, and Gutentag said in a news release that the cash will be used to launch new brands to treat even more chronic conditions. The company is also hiring, with several open positions listed across the company.
Thirty Madison certainly isn’t the only company of its kind seizing this moment. Just this month fellow NYC health startup Ro achieved unicorn status after closing a $200 million Series C round, and Bay Area-based Livongo merged with Teladoc Health in a $18.5 billion deal, creating a healthtech giant. However, Thirty Madison differentiates itself from the crowd by focusing on a few specific conditions, and then offering a range of treatment options for those conditions.
“Over 59 percent of Americans suffer from at least one chronic condition, but few resources exist to help them connect the dots of their care,” Amy Schulman, former president of Pfizer Consumer Healthcare and current managing partner at Polaris Partners, said in a statement. As part of this funding, she will be joining Thirty Madison’s board of directors.
Schulman continued: “I have spent much of my career funding and implementing solutions predicated on putting patients first, and Thirty Madison represents the type of progress in healthcare that has become even more necessary and timely during this current moment.”
