According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1 out of 8 Americans is employed in the healthcare industry. However, even with such prevalence, there has not been a centralized resource offering accurate and actionable information on healthcare professionals. Enter H1, the most comprehensive dataset of all medical professionals in the US. Featuring over 10M healthcare provider profiles, the company’s network serves as a go-to search platform for life sciences companies, hospitals groups, healthcare systems, and medical academia that are looking to connect with physicians. Profiles are built leveraging machine learning to ingest scholarly data and medical claims data, thus offering unbiased relevancy related to expertise. Physicians are also able to contribute to their profiles. With such a robust set of data, H1 can be used in a variety of use cases. For example, pharmaceuticals companies are able to recruit participants for clinical trials through an understanding of a practitioner’s patient demographics.
AlleyWatch caught up with H1 CEO and Cofounder Ariel Katz to learn more about bringing big data to healthcare, the company’s strategic plans, latest round of funding, which brings the total funding raised to $171.9M, and much, much more.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
H1 has raised a $100M Series C round of funding led by Altimeter Capital, joined by new investors Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Flex Capital, with participation from existing investors IVP, Menlo Ventures, Transformation Capital, Lux Capital, dRx Capital (Novartis) and Lead Edge Capital.
Tell us about the product or service that H1 offers.
H1 has built the premier healthcare data network for Healthcare Providers (HCPs), searching scholarly data and medical claims data to surface the most relevant researchers or clinicians given any criteria. The company’s platform helps life sciences companies, hospitals, academic medical centers and health systems connect with providers, find clinical research, locate industry experts, and benchmark their organizations. Most recently, H1’s focus on allowing doctors to enhance their own individual profiles has further increased the depth and value of the proprietary data. Seven of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in the world and several leading academic medical centers (Columbia, UPenn, and others) are now H1 customers.
What inspired the start of H1?
I founded H1 with Ian Sax, who I met via a mutual friend, in 2019. I had experience in amassing healthcare data, and Ian had experience with big data and analytics. We teamed up to bring big data to healthcare.
How is H1 different?
H1 provides the largest global healthcare network that connects healthcare professionals, and recently introduced a new solution called Trial Landscape that provides the best and fastest way for pharma companies to comply with new FDA regulations regarding Diversity & Inclusion in clinical trials.
What market does H1 target and how big is it?
We target the global healthcare ecosystem data & analytics market. We believe the total addressable market is ~$10 billion/yr.
What’s your business model?
Subscription software, annual license based on clinical area (e.g., oncology data, cardiology data, etc.).
What are your post-COVID office plans??
Work from anywhere!
What was the funding process like?
H1 had been receiving inbound requests from investors at the rate of 2-3 a week for many months. We were able to close this round quickly and choose investors that we felt would make the largest contributions over the long term.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Selecting the right investment partners.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
H1 already provided the largest global healthcare network – our new offering for clinical trials Diversity & Inclusion was a big draw, as was our recent ability to let healthcare professionals claim and add to their profiles in the H1 network.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
Hiring, especially in product, sales and marketing, and global expansion.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Stay focused, lean, and just as competitive as you were before the funding hit the bank.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
We imagine a world where access to the right information about doctors is as easy as finding the best restaurant in your city. We imagine this changing the way life science companies, insurance companies, hospitals, governments, doctors, and patients find the right healthcare professional to work with. This funding will help H1 make this future a reality, and build a healthier future for all.
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC
Laut.
