Pomelo Care launched in 2021 with a virtual maternity care model that supplements traditional pregnancy care by proactively predicting and addressing risk factors.
The startup is expanding beyond maternity care to more broadly to serve women's and children's health needs and it picked up $92 million in series C funding to fuel its growth. Pomelo Care's services now span reproductive care, pregnancy, pediatrics and hormonal health as well as perimenopause and menopause. The company also supports long-term preventive care and condition management.
The funding round was led by Stripes and backed by Andreessen Horowitz, PLUS Capital, Atomico, BoxGroup and SV Angel. With the series C funding, Pomelo Care is now valued at $1.7 billion, the company said.
The company raised $46 million in a series B round in June 2024. Pomelo has raised approximately $171 million to date.
"Pomelo Care was founded to measurably improve maternal health in the United States," said Marta Bralic Kerns, founder and CEO of Pomelo Care, in a statement. "We've demonstrated that when care is proactive, evidence-based, and accountable, we improve outcomes and costs come down. Now, with this funding, we're taking that proven model beyond maternity to build a system of care that supports women and children throughout their lives, delivering better results across the entire healthcare ecosystem—for patients, payers, providers, and employers alike."
Pomelo Care, a Fierce 15 of 2024 honoree, partners with health plans and employers and now covers more than 25 million lives. The company delivers 24/7 virtual care through a multispecialty clinical team combined with data science to identify risks early, monitor continuously and close critical gaps. The company aims to collaborate with medical practices and in-person providers to support patients and improve outcomes.
Pomelo Care asserts that its virtual maternity care model measurably reduces preterm births, NICU admissions and medical costs at scale. The company's care model now supports nearly 7% of all U.S. births, executives said.
Findings from four independent studies demonstrate that Pomelo's approach reduces total care costs in a Medicaid population, lowers NICU and ER utilization for both mothers and infants, and enhances follow-up care for depression.
The company has also presented peer-reviewed, claims-based outcomes at national scientific and medical conferences, demonstrating results at scale, including a 6.8-day reduction in NICU length of stay (16.3 days for complex cases), 37% reduction in preterm births, 46% reduction in emergency room utilization and 718% higher prenatal depression screening and follow-up rates.
The results help drive down the cost of care, resulting in a 3-5x ROI for customers, the company claims. Preterm births, emergency visits and NICU stays are three of the most expensive drivers of medical spend.
The U.S. has among the worst maternal health outcomes of any developed country. About 12% of births occur in U.S. counties with limited or no access to maternal care. Identifying people at the highest risk for complications is possible, Pomelo executives argue, but challenges with data gaps and workforce shortages make it difficult to apply interventions at scale.
Part of the reason these gaps exist in the traditional care setting, according to Bralic Kerns, is lack of time. “We find that the OBs just don’t have the time—the relatively short visits with patients, there’s a lot that they need to do in those visits,” she told Fierce Healthcare back in June 2024.
Pomelo Care developed a care platform that embeds evidence-based care pathways and predictive analytics directly into clinician workflows to surface risks early and update them dynamically. The company says the platform serves as a clinician co-pilot, providing patient insights, evidence-based playbooks and recommended clinical actions within minutes, not days.
Pomelo matches each patient with a dedicated care team of licensed clinicians, including nurses, dietitians, therapists and doulas, who create a personalized care plan. Patients have 24/7 multimodal (phone, text, call, video, app) access to their multispecialty team of providers who can diagnose, treat and manage their care.
The company recently launched a midlife care program focused on hormonal, metabolic and mental health challenges women experience through perimenopause and menopause. Pomelo says the results already show an 88% reduction in symptoms (Menopause Rating Scale) in 60 days, and 73% of patients reported an increase in productivity after joining the program.
"Pomelo has reached national scale at an unprecedented rate — now serving 25 million covered lives through commercial and Medicaid health plan partnerships across the United States," Ron Shah, partner at Stripes, said in a statement.
"The power of Pomelo's amazing product is clear: exceptional patient satisfaction and strong clinical results showing meaningful reductions in pregnancy-related complications. We believe Pomelo's intelligent care platform will power continued rapid growth and product expansion, meeting rising demand from patients and payers with a modern clinical experience and best-in-class operating metrics," Shah said.