MedArrive fills mobile care tank with $8M

In-home care enabler MedArrive filled its tank with $8 million in funding steered by Cobalt Ventures.

Why it matters: The funds offer extra padding ahead of a formal Series B in an increasingly tight fundraising market, CEO Dan Trigub tells Axios.

Deal details: Cobalt Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, led the round, tipping MedArrive's total funding to $40.5 million.

• Trigub declined to say when the company plans a Series B.
• "Given the uncertainty in the markets and not knowing when we may go and raise a Series B, this is a great opportunity to give us more runway and it was even better that it was with a strategic investor," says Trigub.
• MedArrive is using the funds to hire case managers, nurse practitioners and social workers and to advance its tech and product roadmap.

How it works: Co-founded by Trigub, who formerly steered health efforts at Uber and Lyft, MedArrive links payers and providers to a network of EMTs, paramedics and nurse practitioners to offer in-home care that can be managed with a virtual platform.

• The company's services include diagnostics, health assessments and post-acute care.
• MedArrive is currently working with over 12 payers, mostly in Medicare Advantage and managed Medicaid.

The intrigue: A few obstacles litter the road ahead for MedArrive, including its personalized approach to care and an ongoing home health labor churn.

• "We don’t have a box we give a health plan where they can just pick it up and start," says Trigub. "Every single one is different. So the challenge is continuing to grow and scale efficiently."
• The home care industry has been rankled in recent years by staffing woes, scheduling gaps and waiting lists for services.

What we're watching: Will strategic funding rounds like this become more common as health tech startups navigate a bumpy financial and political road?

State of play: Following a surge of interest in remote care amid the pandemic, several other mobile care companies have managed to hold continued investor attention in recent years.

• High-acuity home care provider DispatchHealth last fall raised $330 million in combined equity and debt financing from backers including Optum Ventures and Echo Health Ventures.
• Hybrid home care startup Homeward Health last summer pulled in $50 million in Series B funds led by Arch Venture Partners and Human Capital.
• On-demand health service Ready in 2020 amassed $54 million in Series C capital.

What they're saying: "Telehealth works great for healthy 20-year-olds, but for a population that’s complex with co-morbidities it doesn’t do all that much," Trigub says. "Being the physician extender into the home, we think that can be a really powerful clinical model."

• Cobalt managing partner David Eichler says the company stood out to the firm "because it demonstrates you can build trust with an important population and positively impact their health without requiring an expensive, resource-intensive infrastructure to maintain.”

Catch up quick: MedArrive raised a $25 million Series A led by Section 32 in 2021.