Wildflower Health, a digital health startup behind mobile maternity program Due Date Plus, raised $5 million to support a strategic expansion, according to a company statement. The funding will also go towards product development.
Since its launch in 2013 the company has raised $6.7 million, the statement said.
New investors Easton Capital and Hatteras Venture Partners led the funding round. Existing investors Cambia Health Solutions and Health Tech Capital took part as well.
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Wildflower also agreed to a strategic partnership with Everyday Health. It runs the “What to Expect” digital franchise that reaches about 75 percent of pregnant women in the United States. The idea is to extend Wildflower’s services to health plans and employers.
In a phone interview with Wildflower Health CEO Leah Sparks said the company was keen to both expand its current maternity health app and broaden its product portfolio into areas such as pediatrics and family health — something that has been in the works since last year. It plans to launch a Spanish version of Due Date Plus in “the next few months.”
It views its approach as unique. Its app, which functions as a patient navigation tool, can be customized by plan to help users understand what is covered and what is not and to guide users to physicians in their network. That strategy has attracted insurers like Aetna, LifeMap as well as state Medicaid programs such as Wyoming. Because so many members of Wyoming’s Medicaid program have mobile phones, the WyHealth program contacted Wildflower directly.
Sparks said, “There are a lot of great direct-to-consumer applications for maternity, but to date I have not seen startups connect them to enterprise systems. We can configure applications for health plans. We are also HIPAA-compliant and because of that we can help health plan clients gain insight into their applications. We’re unique in providing the front-end consumer experience with the back office.”
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LifeMap is the most recent client. An ancillary benefits provider, the company provides disability insurance and dental benefits to employers. In an interview with MobiHealthNews earlier this year, Sparks said the number one reason for short-term disability is typically maternity, which has made its collaboration with LifeMap different from other payers that focus on medical intervention.
