General Atlantic leads $300m Series D for Biofourmis

Additional contributions came from CVS Health and several existing investors. Openspace Ventures, which has participated in the Series A round onwards, is among those re-upping. The Southeast Asia-focused venture capital firm is committing capital from OSV+, its first growth-stage fund, which recently closed on USD 200m.

Biofourmis relocated its headquarters from Singapore to Boston after raising a USD 35m Series B round in 2019. It wanted to be closer to its customers and expand operations in the US. A Series C of USD 100m followed in 2020 with SoftBank Vision Fund 2 in the lead and re-ups from Openspace, MassMutual Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, and EDBI.

The company has now raised USD 445m in private funding to date. Other early investors included Aviva Ventures, SGInnovate, and Jianke, a private equity-backed Chinese online pharmacy business.

Jessica Huang Pouleur, a partner at Openspace who leads the OSV+ strategy, recently told AVCJ that Vision Fund and General Atlantic were chosen to lead the Series C and Series D, respectively, in part because Biofourmis has realistic ambitions to list in the US.

“Other companies aspire to list in the US, but if you think about it from a practical standpoint, it is difficult if the business model or market is not well understood by US investors,” she said.

“Biofourmis has revenue and customers in the US, so a US IPO makes sense. And then the ability to bring in an investor with deep experience in the US market, in terms of business development and helping with the IPO story is critical. Vision Fund and General Atlantic are great investors for them.”

Following the Series C, the company restructured its business into two verticals. The existing platform builds a customized profile based on a patient’s physiology and background and then tracks their health using data from clinical-grade wearable devices. If deterioration is detected, medical professionals can intervene days before a critical event.

The company initially focused on patients recovering from heart surgery, for whom hospital readmission rates globally are as high as 35% in the first 90 days after discharge. It has expanded into respiratory illnesses and cancer, especially for patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiation therapy or CAR-T treatment.

A second business line focuses on clinically validated software-based therapeutics. The idea is that digital solutions can work in conjunction with pharmacotherapies, augmenting drug efficacy and reducing costs to deliver better patient outcomes.

The Series D proceeds will support scaling up virtual care offerings, such as personalised and predictive in-home care for acutely ill patients and virtual speciality care services for patients with complex chronic conditions. Biofourmis will also push ahead with clinical trials of digital therapies.

“In recent years, we have seen a significant trend towards virtual at-home care, which has become a critical alternative to in-person care, particularly as digital adoption continues to accelerate,” said Sandeep Naik, head of India and Southeast Asia at General Atlantic, in a statement. “Biofourmis is tapping into this global trend with a new approach to remote care management.”

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• North America
• Healthcare
• Technology
• Expansion
• Singapore
• General Atlantic
• Softbank
• Openspace Ventures
• Growth capital