Despite its popularity, “Dr. Google” is not an authoritative source when it comes to matters of health. K Health, a knowledge and telemedicine platform, serves as the go-to destination that contains vetted, accurate information and treatment options for health conditions, built from its massive anonymized data set from others with the same symptoms, medical profile, and demographics. If you need more help, you have the option to chat with a licensed physician for a mere $19 consultation fee. The company also offers an annual subscription for $39; providing relevant health care options on your fingertips efficiently, seamlessly, and also inexpensively. Founded in 2016, K Health is partnered with insurance provider Anthem to service its member network with expansion plans to launch internationally.
AlleyWatch caught up Cofounder & CEO Allon Bloch to learn more about K Health’s impressive trajectory, the company’s future plans, how his role has changed as the company scales, and the company’s latest funding round, which brings the total funding raised to $97M.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
K Health raised $48M in Series C funding. The round was led by 14W and Mangrove Capital, with participation from Anthem, Lerer Hippeau, and Primary Venture Partners, and others.
Tell us about the product or service that K Health offers.
K uses technology to reduce barriers to quality primary care. Users can get instant answers about their symptoms and chat with a doctor within minutes, all for 90% less than the cost of traditional primary care practices. We recently introduced an anxiety and depression treatment program, which has attracted thousands of members within weeks.
What inspired the start of K Health?
After a difficult personal experience navigating the U.S. healthcare system, the urgent need to improve healthcare, with tools that facilitate affordable and reliable care at home, became obviously clear to me.
How is K Health different?
K uses AI to compare users’ symptoms vs. millions of anonymized medical records to see how doctors typically treat patients in a similar situation. This infinitely scalable ‘triage’ capability allows us to get users who need to speak with a doctor connected with one faster and for less, while those that may not need a doctor are spared the time and cost of an unnecessary doctor consultation.
What market does K Health target and how big is it?
The US Healthcare system is $3.5 trillion a year, and $7 trillion globally.
What’s your business and pricing model?
K Health’s information layer will always be free to use. If users would like to chat with a doctor or consume other primary care services through the app, they pay a small fee. These services are priced far below the vast majority of copays and can be used without insurance.
K Health’s information layer will always be free to use. If users would like to chat with a doctor or consume other primary care services through the app, they pay a small fee. These services are priced far below the vast majority of copays and can be used without insurance.
We also partner with healthcare incumbents (we have a partnership with Anthem, the #2 health insurer in the U.S) to increase access to care while reducing costs.
What was the funding process like?
Our investors are excited to invest in K because they recognize our potential to truly transform the way millions of people access healthcare. Several of our earlier investors came back to join this round, which is a strong signal of confidence in our growth.
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What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Thankfully we haven’t had many challenges raising the capital we’ve needed to date. We’re focused on executing against our ambitious vision to make access to primary care and free reliable health information a reality for everyone.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
The current trajectory of the US healthcare system is unsustainable. The average American spends 31x the amount they spent on healthcare in 1970, and the average ER visit costs around $1,900. Yet US citizens do not enjoy better health outcomes. This is a problem that will only continue to increase in size and impact, and K Health is at the forefront of solving it.
How has your role changed as the company scaled and since we last spoke after your series B round in 2018?
I now spend much of my time developing strategic partnerships. As the market has come to understand the power of the technology we are building, more and more partnership opportunities require my attention. I also spend more time working with the rest of our leadership team to mature our organization and foster a culture that gets the most out of our extremely talented teams.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We plan to use the new capital to introduce K’s simple and affordable approach to primary care to more patient populations and medical categories. We will also be introducing K in more languages and will be expanding to strategically important countries by the end of 2020.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Build a product that adds value to society. A product with a culturally relevant mission will be more easily recognized by investors.
What’s your favorite restaurant in the city?
I love Hillstone Park Avenue – it’s the perfect spot for small team dinners!
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