Digital pregnancy care company Babyscripts has raised $12 million in a Series B funding round led by the MemorialCare Innovation Fund, an investment arm of the MemorialCare Health System.
The Series B funding will go expanding Babyscripts to additional U.S. providers and developing new care models for payers, the Washington-based company announced Monday.
Babyscripts, a mobile app that helps patients manage pregnancy and postpartum care, has raised $20.3 million since its founding in 2013, according to Crunchbase.
Babyscripts shares educational content and remotely monitors data like weight and blood pressure for prenatal and postpartum patients, enabling physicians to detect prenatal risks more quickly and manage more of patients’ pregnancies virtually and at a lower cost, according to the company. Generally, payers sponsor use of Babyscripts at hospitals and health systems.
Other investors in Babyscripts’ Series B round include the Dutch electronics company Philips, the Aurora-based University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus’s innovation fund, Phoenix-based Banner Health, WellSpan Health of central Pennsylvania, Cleveland-based University Hospitals and Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
Babyscripts is part of the broader telehealth and virtual care sector, which has experienced rapid growth during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The pandemic exacerbated existing disparities in maternal health, while showcasing the effectiveness of digital tools for managing pregnancy and equalizing care,” Caleb Winder, managing director of the MemorialCare Innovation Fund, said in a news release.
Telehealth companies raised $4.2 billion in the first half of 2021, up from $1.7 billion during the first half of 2020, according to data from Mercom Capital Group. That $4.2 billion in telehealth funding accounts for nearly 30% of a record $14.9 billion that digital health companies collectively raised during the first half of the year.