Medical group Mednax has invested into pediatric urgent-care and telehealth provider Brave Care, leading the startup's $25 million Series B funding round.
Brave Care, a privately held Portland, Oregon-based company founded in 2018, builds technology and data tools for its pediatric primary care and urgent care clinics, and offers a telehealth app. The firm is a graduate of Y Combinator, a prominent startup accelerator known for launching startups like Airbnb, DoorDash and Dropbox.
Brave Care operates clinics in Oregon and North Carolina and plans to open a location in Texas.
Mednax's investment is part of the medical group's effort to solidify its focus on women's and children's specialty services, according to CEO Mark Ordan.
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"We believe that Brave's team, proprietary technology and comprehensive suite of services and operating systems will help enable us to provide an amazing continuum of patient-first care and a one-of-a-kind patient and family experience," Ordan said in a news release.
Mednax's chief development officer, Dr. Jim Swift, also joined Brave Care's board of directors as part of the deal.
Mednax, a national medical group based in Sunrise, Florida, posted $919.7 million in revenue in the first half of 2021, up 7.4% year-over-year, and $35.9 million in income from continuing operations, up from a $11.4 million loss in the year-ago period. Mednax attributed some of its revenue growth to increasing patient volumes in women's and children's services.
Brave Care plans to put the $25 million Series B investment toward expanding its geographic footprint. The startup anticipates opening more than 100 new clinics in partnership with Pediatrix Medical Group, Mednax's maternal-fetal, newborn and pediatric subspecialty services arm, in the next few years, Brave Care CEO Darius Monsef said in a news release.
Before the Series B round, Brave Care had raised $17.9 million, according to Crunchbase, including $10 million from a Series A funding round it disclosed in April. Brave Care is part of the booming telehealth subsector, which has dominated digital health venture-capital funding this year—accounting for 28% of all funds raised in the first half of 2021, according to Mercom Capital Group.