Obesity is a pressing health concern affecting 42% of Americans, and its impact reverberates across every state in the union, where at least 20% of the population grapples with this condition. The staggering cost of chronic illnesses linked to obesity—such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and certain cancers—surpasses an astronomical $1.76T annually. In the healthcare space, there’s been a growing trend towards value-based care focused on delivering preventative, rather than reactive care. This leads to improved patient outcomes, increased quality of care, and optimized spending. Ilant Health is a value-based obesity management platform that sits at the intersection of these two factors. Working directly with employers and health plans to offer a comprehensive set of services for obese patients including bariatric surgery, anti-obesity pharmaceutical treatments like WeGovy, and active behavioral therapy. For healthcare plans and employers, Ilant features a signature data-driven claims analytics engine that focuses on reducing medical costs driven by comorbidities emerging from obesity and driving patient adherence and engagement, ultimately leading to reduced healthcare spend.
AlleyWatch caught up with Ilant Health Founder and CEO Elina Onitskansky to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, latest round of funding, and much, much more…
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
This was a Seed Extension and was supported both by existing investors and some new VC firms that came in, including LifeX, Cornucopian, and Celtic. We’ve raised a total of $5.5M for our Seed including this extension which reflects the commercial traction we’re seeing in the market.
Tell us about the product or service that Ilant Health offers.
Ilant is a value-based obesity management company. We combine proprietary analytics, a comprehensive care team, and purpose-built technology to increase access to obesity treatment while managing total cost of care for employers and health plan.
What inspired the start of Ilant Health?
Ilant was inspired by the combination of my professional experiences working at a health plan and my personal experiences as someone living with obesity – I felt that a better model was needed in the space – one that focused on working with the current system not trying to get around it through direct-to-consumer models
How is Ilant Health different?
Ilant is the only company in the space purpose built to work with employers and health plans – and also the only company that started with a value-based approach in the space.
What market does Ilant Health target and how big is it?
Ilant address the obesity market – this is clearly a growing market and if you think about the impact of obesity-related disease on healthcare cost in total that represents $1T+ so there is lots of value to be had addressing this area.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
Ultimately, people believe that our team and our model is uniquely positioned to create value in the obesity treatment market.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We expect to show outcomes from treating patients and to continue to progress in traction with employer and health plans.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
We see ourselves as being the go-to vendor partner helping employers and health plans create effective and value-based obesity management.
What’s your favorite restaurant in the city?
I have lived in East Harlem for the last 10+ years, and I love all of the innovation you see with chefs coming to the area to try out new concepts. Right now, I’m a big fan of Contento.
