The pandemic has shaped the future of remote healthcare as the importance of providing access to essential healthcare services grew dramatically as the world scrambled to move to digital. In fact, 23.6% of all healthcare interactions were via telehealth during the first four months of the pandemic, up from just .3% for the same period in 2019. Ro, founded in 2017, is one of the pioneering patient-driven telehealth companies that’s built to be the first point of contact when you need to see a physician. The technology allows you to seamlessly connect with a physician, nurse, or pharmacist in minutes instead of days or weeks, bringing the care experience online instead of at a doctor’s office. Ro also operates its own pharmacy fulfillment business, effectively allowing the company to support patient needs from the initial diagnosis to treatment/delivery and everything in between. Structured as a holding company that’s able to capitalize on a robust centralized platform, Ro operates a growing family of brands that redefine how we approach healthcare. Among them are Roman (digital health clinic for men), Rory (digital health for women), Zero (smoking cessation), Ro Pharmacy, Plenity (weight management), and Workpath (API to power on-demand, in-home healthcare). It’s safe to assume that the massive shift towards telehealth has provided Ro with valuable data on patient preferences that will fuel the company’s future verticals and next phase of expansion, armed with this latest round of funding.
AlleyWatch caught up with CEO and Cofounder Zachariah Reitano to learn more about the vision behind the business, how the rush to telehealth drives down healthcare costs, the company’s impressive traction, helping vaccinate New Yorkers, and Ro’s latest funding, which comes at a reported $5B valuation – 3x+ its valuation from its last round over the summer, and much, much more.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
This week, we announced a $500 million Series D fundraising round led by our existing investors General Catalyst, FirstMark Capital, and TQ Ventures, along with participation from existing investors SignalFire, Torch Capital, and BoxGroup as well as new investors Altimeter Capital, Baupost Group, Dragoneer Investment Group, ShawSpring Partners, Radcliff, and 776.
Tell us about the product or service that Ro offers.
Ro’s vertically integrated primary care platform powers a personalized, end-to-end healthcare experience from diagnosis, to delivery of medication, to ongoing care. We’re the only healthcare company in the entire country to seamlessly integrate a nationwide telemedicine, pharmacy distribution, and in-home care network. Through our platform, we’re making high-quality care available when and where patients need it, with no insurance required so patients are the ones in control.
What inspired the start of Ro?
Every single person in my family has had a life-threatening illness at some point in time in my life. Myself included. My dad has had four heart attacks and a stroke. My mom has a neurological disease. My sister, who is probably the biggest warrior of all of us, is a two-time cancer survivor and has an autoimmune disease and a brain tumor. I have a congenital heart condition and had a heart procedure when I was 18.
We were lucky. My dad is a physician and saved every single one of our lives. Whenever we had a question or concern, we would go to him and he would solve it from beginning to end. Our closet at home looked far more like a pharmacy than it did like a closet. And when he couldn’t solve it, he would find the person who could and he would shepherd us through the healthcare system.
I think part of me is trying to make my dad immortal. To keep him around and make sure everyone gets to grow up and live with him. Everyone deserves access to high-quality, affordable healthcare.
How is Ro different?
Ro is a vertically integrated primary care platform. We handle everything from online diagnosis to the delivery of medication to ongoing care.
What makes Ro unique is that we’re the only healthcare company in the entire country to seamlessly integrate a nationwide telemedicine practice, nationwide proprietary pharmacy network, and in-home care platform that can send a healthcare provider to the home of 95% of the U.S. population. Ro’s infrastructure, and the capability it gives us to make high-quality care available where and when patients need it, is one of one.
What market does Ro target and how big is it?
The healthcare care market is too big. It’s $4T and is the largest market in the U.S. It shouldn’t be. We need to use technology to cut it in half!
Ro helps patients nationwide, reaching patients in all 50 states plus Washington D.C. To date, we have facilitated more than six million digital healthcare visits in nearly every county in the U.S., including 98% of care deserts—where patients have limited access to care.
What’s your business model?
Ro offers high-quality, affordable care directly to patients. We handle everything from online diagnosis, to the delivery of medication, and ongoing care for over 20 conditions, from smoking cessation to weight loss to sexual health for $20-30/month. We also have a cash-pay pharmacy where we offer over 500 medications for things like diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease for just $5/month.
How has COVID-19 impacted the business?
Today, virtual care is seen as essential care, and the new industry standard for patient-centric care includes both virtual and in-person options. The pandemic did not change Ro’s mission or trajectory, we’ve always had the goal of building a healthcare system that meets patients where and when they need it.
Just recently, we announced Ro’s COVID-19 Vaccine Drive, where we are working with the New York State Department of Health to facilitate in-home vaccinations for the elderly, disabled, and homebound. It was the first of its kind and leveraged everything Ro has built, including our telemedicine practice, our pharmacy operations, and our in-home care delivery platform.
We have built something unique that is desperately needed by patients and our growth shows that. We will continue to build for patients.
What was the funding process like?
Ro is fortunate to have investors who have been with us from the start as well as newer investors who understand and support our vision for a patient-centric healthcare system. Our investors see the tremendous growth potential of our vertically integrated primary care platform to address an expanding set of conditions for an increasing population of patients.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
Investors recognized just how much Ro is resonating with patients and the value of our vertically integrated care platform. Ro is building a patient-centric healthcare system, and investors saw the potential in powering the patient revolution where patients are in control of their healthcare decisions.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We want to be able to serve as many of a patient’s healthcare needs as possible and when we can’t, we want to seamlessly guide them to the best care. With this new funding, we’ll pull the future forward faster by investing in our vertically integrated primary care platform to offer as many patients as possible high-quality, affordable healthcare—virtually or in their homes.
We want to be able to serve as many of a patient’s healthcare needs as possible and when we can’t, we want to seamlessly guide them to the best care. With this new funding, we’ll pull the future forward faster by investing in our vertically integrated primary care platform to offer as many patients as possible high-quality, affordable healthcare—virtually or in their homes.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Fundraising is a means to end. It is not the goal. Relentlessly focus on adding value to your customers’ lives and the money will come.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
The current healthcare system is working beautifully for insurance companies, but terribly for patients; to pretend otherwise is absolutely ridiculous. It’s time to give patients power. Ro wants to power a patient revolution, where patients control the flow of money at the point of care and determine what they want and need to improve their health, on their terms.
There is so much more to build for patients and we’re just getting started!
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC
I haven’t eaten outdoors at a restaurant in NYC in over a year, but I can’t wait to go back to Cafe Gitane. It is where I first told my fiance I loved her 7 years ago.
