Anthony Stipa, Principal at Quickstudy PR

Startups

CopilotIQ and Biofourmis Merge to Build Single Pane Home Care

One of the biggest stories to come out of last week’s HLTH meetup was the surprise merger between Biofourmis and its under-the-radar remote care competitor CopilotIQ.

CopilotIQ launched a few short years ago in 2021 to provide remote patient monitoring for seniors managing chronic conditions through its High-Frequency Connected Care platform.

• The platform combines clinical automation software with biomarker data, behavioral analytics, and nursing visits to better manage conditions like diabetes and hypertension.

• The company has raised just $30M to-date, and was mostly operating in stealth as it grew its footprint to 11 states and “tens of thousands” of patients.

Biofourmis on the other hand is a Softbank-backed giant that reached unicorn status in 2022 as it closed its $300M Series D round, although we haven’t seen an update on that peak-pandemic valuation.

• The focus for Biofourmis has centered on supporting health systems, payors, and pharma companies with in-home delivery of complex care using wearables, FDA-cleared algorithms, and a virtual specialty care ecosystem.

• Its founder-CEO Kuldeep Rajput departed last year and recently transferred his shares to existing investors while launching a multimodal clinical AI startup called OutcomesAI.

The combined company will be helmed by CopilotIQ CEO David Koretz, who will oversee its transformation into an end-to-end home care solution across the full spectrum from pre-surgical optimization to acute, post-acute, and chronic care.

• The announcement highlights the power of combining CopilotIQ’s consumer-facing business with Biofourmis’s enterprise customer expertise within a “single pane of glass” to view patients across the entire care continuum.

• Tough to argue with the logic behind one integration, one security audit, simplified procurement, and a better user experience.

Outside of that, the only other info on the merger is that it’s an all-stock transaction that’ll see existing investors – including General Atlantic and Bessemer Venture Partners – pile in another $100M to attempt to bridge the gap to the public markets.

The Takeaway

At a time when valuations are quickly heading back to earth and exits are hard to come by, Biofourmis and CopilotIQ’s merger has all the tell-tale signs of an investor-driven union, and the smaller company’s CEO will now get a shot at proving platforms beat point solutions for in-home care.

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The Wire

• Infinitus Calls In $51M: Phone workflow automation startup Infinitus nabbed $51.5M through a Series C round that added a16z and Memorial Hermann Health System to its already-impressive investor roster. Infinitus’ just-launched FastTrack copilot speaks directly to payors to sort out tasks like prior authorizations or benefit verifications, drawing from “a vast knowledge graph of payor intelligence gathered from over four million calls” to navigate IVR systems and bypass tedious hold times.

• Cleveland Clinic + One Medical: Cleveland Clinic and Amazon’s One Medical are teaming up to expand the reach of hybrid primary care in northeast Ohio. The duo plans to open their first office in 2025 followed by more locations in the future. One Medical provides same-day appointments, 24/7 virtual care, and has already partnered with ~20 health systems as a capital-light way to generate specialty care referrals.

• ChatRWD Full Launch: Atropos Health announced the full release of ChatRWD following a successful beta that slashed the time needed to produce publication-grade real-world evidence reports using a chat-based interface. During the beta, ChatRWD had an average answer time of 5.2 minutes while producing better answers than major LLMs for 87% of novel questions (ChatGPT-4, Claude 3 Opus, Gemini Pro 1.5).

• Seed Funding Counsel: Counsel Health secured $11M in seed funding to scale its message-based AI platform that allows patients to receive answers to complex medical questions and get second opinions within minutes. The funds will help build out Counsel’s asynchronous care capabilities and facilitate faster medical advice from human clinicians to close care gaps and keep patients out of the ED.

• Signify’s MCI Expansion: Signify Health is bolstering its in-home offerings to include a cognitive health digital screener for early detection and treatment of mild cognitive impairment. The MCI test is administered by a clinician in the member’s home to broaden access to screening for the 10% of U.S. adults ages 65+ who have dementia and the nearly 7M facing Alzheimer’s Disease – a figure that’s expected to double by 2050.

• ixlayer CBC Tests: ixlayer announced a Complete Blood Count test with at-home sample collection to support its biopharma partners launching direct-to-patient programs. The test’s collection device integrates with ixEngage to securely transfer lab results and ensure that patients understand their CBC through instant access to physicians. Several U.S. biopharma companies have already signed on to implement the new test ahead of its full launch early next year.

• Avery Partners With Mytrex: Avery Telehealth is bringing Mytrex’s PERS device to its remote patient monitoring platform with the goal of enabling more seniors to maintain their independence while aging in place. The integration creates “a dynamic and effective” alert system that enhances patient safety in times of crisis and provides care teams with a stream of critical patient data.

• HealthEx Debut: HealthEx launched with $14M in funding to accelerate the expansion of its AI platform that weaves the patient voice across “all healthcare activities.” The HealthEx platform is among the first to enable healthcare orgs to easily create, collect, and enforce patient consent and preferences, while simultaneously automating security and compliance processes.

• Talkdesk Debuts AI Agents: Talkdesk implemented agentic AI across its entire platform – now branded as Talkdesk Ascend AI – to help healthcare orgs automate complex tasks and make more decisions without human intervention. The AI agents will be used to quickly process large amounts of data, create personalized customer experiences, respond to live interactions, and manage complex contact center operations.

• Ozarks Integrates Avo: Missouri-based Ozarks Healthcare integrated Avo’s advanced AI clinical decision support platform into its MEDITECH EHR. The partnership leverages Avo’s AI Scribe, Chart Synopsis & Care Guide, and Ask Avo functionalities to assist Ozarks’ clinicians with real-time ambient transcription, patient snapshots, care gap identification, and evidence-based clinical consult capabilities.

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The Industry Wire

1. Sanford, Marshfield Clinic combine into 56-hospital system.
2. General Catalyst earmarks $750M for healthcare investment.
3. Mental health app vendor covered $15k in travel for officials tied to CA contract.
4. AdventHealth opens $263M Florida hospital.
5. Health system CIO turnover accelerates.
6. Cloud security report reveals mounting risks despite improved protections.
7. Alabama faces third hospital closure this year.
8. Advocate Health taps Mercy execs as new chief nursing officer. 
9. Hospitals push back on new rules to report capacity, COVID data.
10. 16 health systems undergoing rebrands.