Summus Global Raises $21 Million in Series B Funding to Transform Employer Health Benefit Landscape with Innovative Virtual Specialty Care Solution
NEW YORK, April 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Summus Global, the leading virtual specialist platform, announced today that it has raised $21M in Series B funding. The round of financing will help Summus further shape the future of virtual specialty care for millions of employees and their families around the world. The round was led by Sator Grove Holdings, with participation from the Outsiders Fund, Savoy Capital, Teamworthy Ventures and existing investors.
Summus’ virtual care platform combines best-in-class technology with a marketplace model for specialist expertise, empowering families to connect quickly with leading specialists to make more informed, higher quality medical decisions across all health questions. Summus will use this funding to enhance its core product and scale its existing employer business, bringing its unique virtual specialty care model to more employees and families around the world. The funding will also be used to partner with additional health systems and medical Centers of Excellence that leverage Summus’ SaaS platform to power new patient engagement strategies in specialty care.
“Employers and benefit platforms working with Summus can offer their employees a world-class solution that supports better decision making across the spectrum of care through access to the best in medicine,” said Rick Buhrman, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Sator Grove Holdings. “The Summus team has deep experience scaling marketplaces centered around person-to-person interactions, and we are excited to support them in changing the healthcare experience for families globally.”
Summus’ innovative virtual specialty care model is creating a new category in corporate health benefits, straddling the navigation and second opinion categories with a physician-led model that broadens the impact on employee populations across the continuum of care. By prioritizing the virtual experience for specialized providers, Summus has become the choice platform for the world’s leading specialists, who spend an average of 45 minutes with Summus members per consult, three times the industry average. The Summus network today consists of 4,000+ highly-vetted specialists across 48 top hospitals.
Summus combines the latest technology with a concierge service model and world-class physician network to deliver a positive impact on the consumer healthcare experience through enhanced care, access, and improved outcomes. By deploying leading specialists across a wide spectrum of healthcare questions, from preventive care and chronic conditions to complex diagnoses, Summus has designed an engagement model with a single point of entry to drive market-leading utilization and member satisfaction. The majority (64%) of members changed their treatment plan after a Summus consultation, 92% felt more informed, and have rated their experience with Summus at an NPS of 90+.
“Above all else, consumers measure healthcare quality by their ability to access leading doctors and top health systems, particularly in specialty care,” says Julian Flannery, founder and CEO of Summus. “Our mission is to help families feel more powerful in their healthcare journeys, and we believe the provider is ultimately at the center of that mission. We have a deep respect for those who have committed their professional lives to excellence in medicine, and our unrelenting focus on the provider drives a better consumer experience. We are thrilled to partner with Sator Grove Holdings, which brings both permanent capital and a strategic shareholder base of some of the leading operators and investors in the world.”
Employers have also added Summus to their benefits portfolio as a powerful way to mitigate rising healthcare costs. With 50% of healthcare costs typically concentrated in 5% of a population and largely centered around specialized medical concerns, fast access to high quality specialist expertise can drive better, more cost-efficient decisions. Employers partnering with Summus see utilization rates 5-7x the industry standard and a 3:1 ROI on average.
Summus saw significant growth during the pandemic, with 11x membership increase in 2020. The pandemic accelerated adoption of telehealth by doctors and patients alike, and data shows that virtual care is here to stay. Notably, 76% of healthcare consumers are now interested in utilizing telehealth versus 11% who used it before the pandemic, and 64% of providers are more comfortable using telehealth than they were pre-COVID.
“Over the last year we have seen a dramatic increase in the usage of virtual care services out of necessity due to the pandemic. People have grown accustomed to the ease and convenience of engaging with doctors by video, which is not something they’ll readily give up,” says Outsiders Fund Investor Austin McChord. “As the virtual care sector continues to grow, consumers will demand a higher quality user experience, network of doctors, and impact on their healthcare experience. Summus is well positioned to be at the forefront of this new paradigm in healthcare.”
About Summus Global:
Summus Global, the leading virtual specialist platform, empowers families by providing access to a network of 4,000+ top specialists across 48 leading hospitals — within days, from anywhere in the world. The Summus model sets a new standard for speed of access to high-quality medical expertise and drives industry-leading engagement with employers. Pioneering the future of corporate health benefits, Summus Global partners with companies across the country to create an elevated healthcare experience for their employees and to support better, cost-efficient outcomes across all health questions and stages of care.
Contact:
Emma Mazza / summus@relativity.ventures
SOURCE Summus Global
