Brave Care, a pediatric healthcare provider, has raised $25 million in a Series B funding round.
The round was led by physician services provider Mednax, whose Chief Development Officer Dr. Jim Swift was added to Brave Care’s board of directors.
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A graduate of seed money startup accelerator Y Combinator, Portland, Oregon-based Brave Care launched in 2019. The startup leverages its technology and data platform to provide primary and urgent care for children. It operates in-person clinics and provides remote care through its nurse line and Brave Care Parent Mobile App.
“Brave Care considers [itself] the future of pediatric care,” said Darius Monsef, CEO of the startup, in an email.
It currently has three brick-and-mortar clinics in Portland and Fayetteville, North Carolina, and has plans to open two more clinics in Austin, Texas, and Portland by the end of the year. It employs 23 providers.
The startup’s goal is to expand its concierge medicine services to families across the country. Millions of single parents often end up at the emergency room with their child because there are no after-hours options available, which ends up being very expensive for the parent, Monsef said.
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Brave Care is open 12 hours a day, seven days a week, to help working families without harming their financial health, he added.
With the new funds, Brave Care plans to roll out its technology-backed clinics nationwide. It aims to open 100 new clinics over the next few years.
Since its inception, Brave Care has raised $42 million from investors, including Mednax, Y Combinator, City Light Capital and Interplay. Monsef did not disclose the startup’s current valuation.
Brave Care enters a crowded healthcare market, but Monsef believes it will be able to carve out a niche for itself.
For example, the startup provides more accessibility than traditional primary care or urgent care clinics, he said. Further, it focuses solely on children, unlike companies like Carbon Health, which also provide comprehensive technology-enabled primary care.
Then, there are the pediatric care providers that operate via telehealth only, like Anytime Pediatrics. But some level of in-person care is necessary for the pediatrics space, Monsef said.
“Purely telehealth pediatric care will never be able to handle most care needs for children, as telehealth requires precision in language to accurately describe an illness or injury and that is hard for an adolescent and impossible for a toddler, especially for those needing in-person care,” he said.
Photo: drogatnev, Getty Images
