Wheel, the health tech company powering the next generation of healthcare, today announced a $150 million Series C round co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Tiger Global. New investors Coatue and Salesforce Ventures participated in the round, along with existing investors CRV, Tusk Venture Partners, and Silverton Partners. This brings Wheel’s total funding to $216 million to date, including a $50 million Series B round in May 2021. Wheel will use this new round of funding to continue accelerating the next chapter of healthcare innovation by helping more companies introduce virtual-first care to their millions of patients.
Since launching in 2018, Wheel has pioneered a new way for companies to build and scale virtual care. Instead of starting from scratch, companies can leverage Wheel’s virtual care platform and nationwide clinician network to develop a virtual care service — bypassing the 15 months and $15 million it can take to build from the ground up. Wheel powers the most innovative companies in healthcare today, delivering 1.3 million patient visits in 2021 and is expected to triple visit volume by the end of 2022. The company also grew its clinician network by more than 60% year-over-year while maintaining a 90% retention rate.
As the entire healthcare industry races to serve patients online, Wheel has invested in an omnichannel solution that helps companies build personalized care journeys for their patients. By building care journeys around patients and their care needs — also known as virtual-first care — patients can easily access care form anywhere and at any time. When companies build on Wheel’s platform, the underlying infrastructure and technology:
- Triages the patient’s care need and determines the best care setting
- Matches the patient with the best clinician for their care needs across more than a dozen attributes
- Facilitates any necessary follow-up care
“Telehealth 1.0 brought healthcare visits online but companies are still struggling to meet their patients’ care needs,” said Wheel CEO and Co-founder Michelle Davey. “We recognized that in order to move the healthcare industry forward and truly deliver on the promise of virtual-first care, we need both the infrastructure and workforce that can deliver ‘anytime, anywhere’ care. We’re excited to continue leading the charge and making personalized care a reality.”
Wheel will use the funding to further invest in its platform and broaden its white-labeled diagnostic services, enabling companies to integrate direct-to-consumer lab testing and diagnostic follow-up care. The company also plans to double its employee headcount, continue growing its clinician network, invest in its clinical platform, and expand its clinical onboarding and continuing education programs. Additional company milestones include:
- Omnichannel approach: Launched a white-labeled virtual care platform that supports asynchronous chat, on-demand and scheduled video visits, remote patient monitoring, clinician oversight for labs, and follow-up care.
- Comprehensive care: Integrated virtual primary care, behavioral health, urgent care, and diagnostics into one solution. Wheel also launched clinician networks for behavioral health and triage care in the last year.
- Best-in-class patient care: Expanded clinical onboarding program with dedicated resources and 24/7 support. Wheel’s clinician network maintained a 99.9% clinical quality score.
- 24/7 care: Expanded nationwide care coverage while also maintaining industry-low response rates with averages of two-and-a-half minutes for asynchronous visits and 90 seconds for on-demand synchronous visits.
- White-glove service: Expanded client portfolio by 100% year-over-year while growing top accounts by 350%. Wheel’s clients today include digital health companies, clinical lab networks, retailers, traditional healthcare providers, and tech companies.
Close to 60% of healthcare organizations have been forced to adjust their care models because of the workforce crisis. Wheel’s unique tech-enabled approach to care delivery drives efficiency with a shrinking workforce while maintaining quality of care. And Wheel’s focus on the clinician experience has allowed the company to maintain a 90% retention rate both in 2021 and 2020. With this investment, Wheel is strongly positioned to accelerate the healthcare industry’s transition from telehealth to virtual-first care and transform the clinician experience in healthcare.
“Wheel believes the future of virtual care is simply ‘care’ — driven by online and in-person care. By providing the infrastructure to power virtual care, Wheel is committed to moving the healthcare industry forward with clinicians, organizations, and patients all playing an integral role,” said Lightspeed partner Dr. Ling Wong. “In just a few years, Wheel has proven they are the leader and trusted partner to build in virtual care. I’m personally passionate about their noble goals to make virtual-first care more accessible, affordable, and equitable at scale.”
“Wheel has played a critical role in the healthcare industry’s transformation to bring care online,” said Tiger Global partner Jay Chen. “We’re still in the early innings, and Wheel’s work behind-the-scenes to power some of the most disruptive companies in healthcare today and in the future is incredibly exciting. We’re looking forward to partnering with Michelle and her team and continuing their path as both the pioneer and industry leader.”
For companies interested in partnering with Wheel, please visit wheel.com/companies, and for clinicians interested in virtual care opportunities, please visit wheel.com/clinicians.
About Wheel
Wheel is a health tech company powering the next generation of healthcare. Wheel provides companies and clinicians with everything they need to deliver care virtually. Today Wheel powers virtual-first care for the most forward-thinking organizations in healthcare today — including digital health companies, clinical lab networks, retailers, and tech companies. To learn more about Wheel, visit wheel.com.
About Lightspeed Venture Partners
Lightspeed Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in the Enterprise, Consumer, and Health sectors. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 400+ companies globally, including Snap, Affirm, The Honest Company,MuleSoft, Guardant Health, and Teneobio. Lightspeed and its affiliates currently manage over $10.5B across the global Lightspeed platform, with investment professionals and advisors in Silicon Valley, Israel, India, China, Southeast Asia, and Europe. www.lsvp.com
About Tiger Global
Tiger Global Management is an investment firm focused on private and public companies in the internet, software, and financial technology sectors. Since 2001, Tiger Global has invested in hundreds of companies, across more than 30 countries, at stages ranging from Series A to pre- and post-IPO. The firm aims to partner with dynamic entrepreneurs operating market-leading companies in its core focus areas. Tiger Global’s investments have included JD.com, UiPath, Stripe, Databricks, Bytedance, Snowflake, Facebook, Alibaba, Procore, Chime, Blend, Peloton, Nubank, Attentive, LinkedIn, Flipkart, and Toast.
