Solera raises $18.3m to expand into chronic disease prevention
US-based Solera Health has raised $18.3m in a funding round led by Adams Street Parnters, bringing its total funding to $30.3m. The platform offers a marketplace for in-person and digital diabetes prevention programmes and connects patients with community organisations, like the CDC's National Diabetes Prevention Program. The platform makes it easy for customers to manage payments and monitor data, and works with various plans such as Weight Watchers, WellCoaches and Jenny Craig. Solera wants to expand its platform to manage other chronic diseases and has previously suggested hypertension and depression could be explored in the future.

Solera Health, the Phoenix-based company that has created a marketplace for digital and in-person diabetes prevention programs, has raised $18.3 million in a round led by Adams Street Partners, with additional participation from Blue Cross Blue Shield Venture Partners, Sandbox Industries and SJF Ventures. The round, Solera's largest to date, brings its total funding to $30.3 million.

Solera makes a platform that connects community organizations with digital chronic disease prevention programs such as the CDC's National Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP). The technology makes referrals to the programs easier, helps customers manage payments and reimbursement, and aggregates data from the programs. This makes it easier for community groups to enroll people in the prevention programs. Solera works with Weight Watchers, Lark, Retrofit, Noom, Canary Health, health app MyDietician, the Michigan Health Improvement Alliance, Black Women's Health Imperative, WellCoaches, and Jenny Craig. It has 40 million covered lives.

With this new round of funding, the company is beginning to look to other chronic disease management and prevention programs that could benefit from the same infrastructure. In the past, the company has indicated depression and hypertension as possible target areas for the future.

“Solera Health has created the preventive care benefits manager category and for the first time is now enabling non-clinical providers to be integrated into healthcare,” CEO Brenda Schmidt said in a statement. “This investment allows us to further scale our model to positively impact the enormous health and financial burdens of chronic disease.”

The funding will also support expansion of Solera's existing programs to the demand created by Medicare's decision to reimburse for DPPs.

“Solera Health was immediately compelling as they had such a unique vision and approach for addressing challenges typically related to preventive services administration,” Tom Bremner, a Partner at Adams Street Partners, said in a statement. “Brenda and her team saw a need for a DPP integrator who could manage engagement, enrollment, billing and reporting, and they built a company around bridging this gap in the healthcare ecosystem. This round of funding will support the company’s ongoing efforts to alter an antiquated approach to the administration of preventive benefits and transform the healthcare delivery model as we know it.”