Backed by Andreessen Horowitz and First Round Capital, Pomelo Care has Built an End-to-End, Value-Based Virtual Maternity Care Platform and is on Track to Cover 2M Lives this Year
Pomelo Care, a virtual medical practice that improves maternal and newborn health outcomes, today announced $33 million in Seed and Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. The capital will fuel Pomelo’s continued partnership expansion with major health plans, including several Medicaid managed care organizations, employers and leading academic medical centers on the front lines of the national maternal health crisis.
Pomelo’s multispecialty team of expert clinicians cares for mothers and infants from preconception through pregnancy, birth and one year postpartum, spanning everything from prenatal care to nutrition and lactation to mental health. Its value-based virtual care model pairs each patient with a personalized care team to comprehensively address maternal health inequities and the root causes of poor outcomes. Pomelo uses data to predict and proactively identify risk, provides holistic care leveraging evidence-based protocols and novel care programs and makes 24/7 care accessible via phone, text, and video.
“We know that the right care at the right time can dramatically improve outcomes for families. Everyone deserves access to high-quality care, regardless of their circumstances or health plan,” said Marta Bralic Kerns, Founder and CEO at Pomelo Care. “That’s why Pomelo exists – we address patient concerns right away and at home, keeping them out of the emergency room unnecessarily and lowering their risk of pregnancy, postpartum and newborn complications.”
Since its founding in 2021, Pomelo has achieved significant milestones, including:
- $33 million in capital raised: The company today announced Series A financing, which follows its 2021 Seed round. Andreessen Horowitz led both funding rounds, with additional participating investors First Round Capital (who co-led the Seed round), SV Angel, Operator Partners, Allen & Company LLC, and BoxGroup, joined by angel investors and healthcare industry leaders including Adam Boehler, Managing Partner of Rubicon Founders, Former Director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), and Founder of Landmark Health and Puneet Singh, Former Chief Growth Officer, Diversified Business Group at Elevance.
- On track to cover two million lives this year: Pomelo currently serves patients in 44 states and partners with national payers, several of the largest Medicaid managed care organizations in the country, employers including Mount Sinai Health System and leading academic medical centers including Penn Medicine.
- > 4.9/5 average patient satisfaction: Pomelo provides 24/7 access to care with one-third of patient interactions taking place outside of traditional clinic hours and an average response time of five minutes.
Despite spending $111 billion annually on maternal healthcare, the U.S. has some of the highest rates of preterm birth, NICU admissions and preventable maternal complications in the developed world. Maternal mortality worsened during the pandemic, with poor maternal and newborn outcomes remaining even more common in communities of color and rural areas. One in ten newborns start their life in the NICU and cesarean births have increased 41% over the last two decades. However, with evidence-based and accessible interventions, preterm births can be reduced by 33%, cesarean deliveries reduced by 40% and the average NICU stay reduced by at least four days.
Pomelo’s team consists of clinicians – 50% of whom are BIPOC – technologists and executives, with backgrounds at leading hospitals, academic medical centers and technology companies. The team’s previous experience spans Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Duke University Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Flatiron Health, Kaiser Permanente, Emory University Hospital, Google and Stripe. Pomelo also announced the appointment of Vineeta Agarwala, MD, PhD, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and Josh Kopelman, Partner at First Round Capital, to the company’s board of directors.
“It’s inexcusable that women in the U.S. face one of the highest national mortality rates from preventable complications during pregnancy – and this statistic is only worsening year over year due to social disparities and systemic gaps in care delivery and access,” said Agarwala. “Pomelo Care’s technology-driven, value-based care model completely reimagines how new families access high quality specialty care and achieve better outcomes while also reducing costs for our leading health plans, health systems and employers.”
To learn more about Pomelo or to get started as a health plan or employer, please visit pomelocare.com
About Pomelo Care
Pomelo Care is a virtual medical practice that addresses underlying risk factors to improve maternal and newborn health, increase access to care and reduce avoidable costs. The company supports its patients from preconception through an infant’s first year with personalized and proactive 24/7 care from a dedicated, multispecialty team. Pomelo works with leading commercial and Medicaid health plans and employers including Penn Medicine, Mount Sinai Health System, Koch Industries, Elevance Health, Healthy Blue Nebraska, Nebraska Total Care, a Centene affiliate, and more. Pomelo Care is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, First Round Capital, BoxGroup, Operator Partners, SV Angel and Allen & Company LLC. For more information, visit pomelocare.com.
Originally announced June 8th, 2023
