Boulder Care, a virtual provider for substance use disorder, has raised $35 million in Series C funding, the company announced Wednesday.
Portland, Oregon-based Boulder Care works with payers — primarily Medicaid — in value-based contracts and treats people with opioid use disorder and alcohol use disorder. Its app provides access to a team of care providers and peer recovery coaching. Boulder Care’s addiction specialists can also prescribe buprenorphine, a medication that treats opioid use disorder. In January, the company announced that it expanded its services to adolescents.
The Series C funding round was led by Advance Venture Partners and included participation from Stripes, First Round Capital, Qiming Venture Partners and Laerdal Million Lives Fund. In total, Boulder Care has raised about $85 million.
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Advance Venture Partners chose to invest in Boulder Care because it “stood out as the clear leader in this category on quality, outcomes, and patient experience,” said David ibnAle, managing partner of the firm, in a statement.
With the financing, the company plans to grow its team, particularly in patient-facing roles, according to Stephanie Strong, CEO of Boulder. This includes nurses, clinicians, peer recovery specialists and case managers. Boulder Care will also deepen its presence in states it already works in (including Oregon, Washington and Ohio) and expand to new states. It plans to enter two new states in the next year, but Strong declined to say what states those are. When expanding to new states, it looks for states that have expanded Medicaid and have large rural populations “where we can make an immediate impact for many millions of people who don’t have access to services,” Strong said in an interview.
She added that she’s noticed a higher willingness from investors to invest in startups specialized in Medicaid.
“When we raised our seed round, it was definitely not an attractive area for most investors,” Strong said. “We were very lucky to have strong conviction from some of our early investors like First Round, but over the last few years, investors have become much more informed and excited about the trends that we’ve seen in managed Medicaid.”
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The funding comes as an estimated 50 million Americans struggle with a substance use disorder, and many don’t access treatment, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Digital providers for addiction treatment like Boulder Care, Bicycle Health and Ophelia have been looking to meet the need. However, many digital health companies have been in limbo recently as the DEA has yet to announce what it will do about the virtual prescribing of controlled substances (including buprenorphine). Covid-19 telehealth flexibilities allowed physicians to prescribe controlled substances virtually without an in-person exam, and these flexibilities have been extended through December of this year. Strong has been an advocate for continuing the virtual prescribing of buprenorphine.
Looking ahead, Boulder Care ultimately aims to “help some of the sickest and most underserved patients recover from substance use disorders, and continue to build on our services offering to make it more robust and tailored to these patients,” Strong said.
Picture: Feodora Chiosea, Getty Images
