After care navigation company Transcarent announced last week that it had raised $126 million in Series D funding, CEO Glen Tullman told MedCity News that he had “no interest” in selling the company. However, an initial public offering (IPO) – when a private company sells shares to the public – is a possibility, he said.
“I’ve run four publicly traded companies and gone through three IPOs, so I get asked this question a lot,” he said in an email. “Today we operate Transcarent like a publicly traded company and have a strong leadership team in place should we decide to go public at some point in the future. … I can say with confidence that we have great options ahead and we will make all exit decisions for the right reasons.” The four listed companies were CCC Information Systems, Livongo, Allscripts and Enterprise Systems (the number three company with which he conducted IPOs). .
San Francisco-based Transcarent primarily serves self-insured employers and offers services in the areas of everyday health, pharmacy, behavioral health, surgery and oncology. The $126 million Series D financing was led by General Catalyst and 7wireVentures and included participation from new investors Geodesic Capital and Memorial Hermann Health System. Previous investors also participated, including Threshold Ventures, Kinnevik, Ally Bridge Group, Human Capital, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Alta Partners and Leaps by Bayer. In total, the company has raised around $450 million and is valued at $2.2 billion.
General Catalyst invested in Transcarent due to technological advances.
“Our continued support for Transcarent is based on their technology, which we believe represents an unprecedented integration of software, AI, robust data science and tailored healthcare consulting,” Hemant Taneja, CEO and managing director of General Catalyst, said in a statement. “This combination has sparked real change in the delivery of health and care and is consistent with our founding mission: to help millions of people navigate the complexities of the healthcare system and achieve better health outcomes.”
With the funding, Transcarent will “double down” on its AI investments, Tullman said. This builds on the company’s recent acquisition of 98point6’s AI-powered virtual care platform.
“Transcarent is already integrating AI into physician and member experiences, but we will continue to leverage AI in additional use cases to continue empowering individual healthcare consumers and improving efficiency for clinicians,” he said.
He added that the funding will support commercial growth and attract new customers.
The Series D funding round comes at a time when many employers are struggling with point solution fatigue and many legacy digital solutions are struggling financially. This shows the need for a platform that offers multiple services under one roof, explained Tullman.
“There is no question that consumers and employers are struggling with point solution fatigue and are looking for a central place to access all their health and care services. And everyone knows that health care costs need to be reduced, so incentives need to be aligned with the delivery and payment of care,” Tullman said.
Transcarent has made a number of announcements in the last year, including partnerships with musculoskeletal company ViewFi and ten health systems, including Mount Sinai Health System and Mass General Brigham.
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