Armed With $8 Million, Heal Co-Founders Launch Medical Concierge Service For Seniors

Keerthi Vedantam

Keerthi Vedantam is a bioscience reporter at dot.LA. She cut her teeth covering everything from cloud computing to 5G in San Francisco and Seattle. Before she covered tech, Keerthi reported on tribal lands and congressional policy in Washington, D.C. Connect with her on Twitter, Clubhouse (@keerthivedantam) or Signal at 408-470-0776.

Armed With $8 Million, Heal Co-Founders Launch Medical Concierge Service For Seniors

After Renee Dua’s father underwent a surgical procedure, he was saddled with a slew of specialists to talk to, medications to take, and lifestyle modifications to make. Dua, the co-founder of Pacific Palisades-based on-demand doctor service Heal, became the person responsible for juggling the different points of care for her father; she began scheduling appointments, picking up prescriptions and reminding him to take his medication.


“I'm a doctor and I'm a daughter. I love my father very much. What do people do when they don't happen to have a daughter who's a doctor that can guide them through all of this task management and decision making?” Dua asked dot.LA.

HeyRenee screenshot

That was the inspiration for HeyRenee—a new venture from Dua and her husband and Heal co-founder Nick Desai that aims to help seniors, the chronically ill and those with disabilities manage their medical care. The startup announced Thursday that it has raised an additional $4.4 million in seed funding led by Quiet Capital, with participation from the likes of Westwood-based Fika Ventures and Santa Monica-based Mucker Capital. The new funding adds to an initial $3.8 million in seed funding that HeyRenee raised in August, taking its total capital raised to $8.2 million.

The company aims to address a problem that the public health ecosystem has long braced for: Baby Boomers are expected to be the longest-living senior population to date, which will create an abundance of demand for health care services as they age. One potential solution to the strain that will be placed on the health care system is preventative care, and ensuring that patients are following doctors’ orders when they’re not at the doctor’s office.

Otherwise, patients “don't take their medications, they don't do their screenings, [and] they forget to show up at doctor's appointments. And then by that time, they're very sick; they're also very expensive,” Dua noted. “We can't have it both ways. We can't ignore people and then expect them not to become an expense on the health care system.”

HeyRenee essentially acts as a task manager tool. The startup onboards patients by asking them a series of questions about their medical background and conditions; users can then set up reminders to take their medications, pick up prescription refills and go to their appointments. It can also schedule appointments with different specialists that are in a patient’s network, and then send blood work or procedure results to their primary care physicians. The platform also loops in physicians, caretakers and family members.

 HeyRenee co-founders Nick Desai and Renee Dua. HeyRenee co-founders Nick Desai and Renee Dua.Image courtesy of HeyRenee

The company joins a cadre of other startups aiming to ease access to what can be a scattered and convoluted health care industry. Within Health, co-founded by Los Angeles-based entrepreneur and investor Abhilash Patel, launched in October to coordinate doctors, dieticians and therapists for those recovering from eating disorders. Boston-based Bicycle Health raised $27 million in June to tackle opioid addiction using coordinated medical and behavioral services.

HeyRenee is currently piloting with a small subset of people, including Dua’s father. The platform is expected to launch this spring.

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LA Tech ‘Moves’: Community Hires New CEO, Bento Box Welcomes President

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

LA Tech ‘Moves’: Community Hires New CEO, Bento Box Welcomes President
LA Tech ‘Moves’:

“Moves,” our roundup of job changes in L.A. tech, is presented by Interchange.LA, dot.LA's recruiting and career platform connecting Southern California's most exciting companies with top tech talent. Create a free Interchange.LA profile here—and if you're looking for ways to supercharge your recruiting efforts, find out more about Interchange.LA's white-glove recruiting service by emailing Sharmineh O’Farrill Lewis (sharmineh@dot.la). Please send job changes and personnel moves to moves@dot.la.

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This Week in ‘Raises’: CORTICA Lands $75M, Adventrx Therapeutics Grabs $38M

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Raises
Image by Joshua Letona

A local biotech company raised fresh funding to advance its proprietary ADC therapeutic pipeline—a class of therapies that combine the specificity of antibodies with the potency of conventional chemotherapy drugs into the clinic.

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Greycroft Founder Dana Settle on the VCs $1 Billion Raise and Their Plan for the Future

Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College and previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

Dana Settle, Greycroft
Dana Settle, Greycroft

Venture capital firm Greycroft, which has an office in Los Angeles' Arts District, closed a combined $1 billion in capital commitments across several new funds. The money will be used primarily to invest in varying stage companies with a focus on AI, co-founder and managing partner Dana Settle told dot.LA.

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