Patient advocacy platform Solace Health announced a $130 million series C raise on Tuesday, led by IVP.
Solace Health connects Medicare and Medicare Advantage patients to trained healthcare advocates to improve their experience navigating the healthcare system and assist them in getting the care they need. Patients are matched with advocates on Solace Health’s digital platform.
CEO Jeremy Gurewitz and Chief Product Officer Sara Sargent founded the company in 2022 after Gurewitz’s mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2016. Though his mother was a physician, the family still experienced difficulty navigating her care.
Solace Health seeks to help patients and families navigate common and complex diagnoses. Existing investors Menlo Ventures, SignalFire, Torch Capital, Inspired Capital and RiverPark Ventures also participated in the funding round.
The latest raise values Solace Health at $1 billion, according to the company.
With the additional funds, Solace Health hopes to expand its national advocate network beyond its 2,000 existing advocates. It also wants to invest in its platform and clinical research and deepen its partnerships with payers and providers to add an advocacy layer earlier in the patient journey.
The company claims 98% of its users reported better outcomes after working with an advocate. The advocates can help patients coordinate care across providers and manage the logistics of their appointments, such as arranging transportation.
The advocates can also attend appointments, reduce medical bills, organize medical documents, keep family members updated, locate local resources, manage insurance appeals, oversee transitions of care and research conditions and solutions.
While the advocates cannot prescribe medications or diagnose conditions, they can support patients through almost all of the other aspects of the healthcare system. Solace Health advocates emphasize building relationships with patients over time.
“The healthcare system has normalized leaving patients to figure things out themselves in their vulnerable moments,” Gurewitz said in a statement. “That failure is costly, dangerous, and preventable. IVP understands how to scale companies where execution and consequences are inseparable. This partnership allows us to embed advocacy earlier in care, at a national scale and establish it as a permanent part of how healthcare works in the United States.”
Solace Health serves more than 20,000 patients per month, 95% of whom do not have to pay out of pocket for the services.
“Healthcare advocacy is moving from a discretionary service to essential infrastructure,” Eric Liaw, general partner at IVP, said. “Solace has demonstrated that when patients are supported through complexity, outcomes improve and costs come down. We believe Solace is building a foundational layer of the healthcare system, and the scale of this opportunity is significant.”