Health Tech Company Color Scores $167M With Focus on Public Health Infrastructure
Health technology company Color has announced a $167 million Series D financing round, and officials say the funding will be used to expand its work building public health technology and infrastructure for governments, employers, and other institutions that serve large populations.
This brings Color, which launched in 2015 with a focus on gene testing and precision medicine, to $278 million in total financing, with a valuation of $1.5 billion, according to the announcement. The round was led by General Catalyst and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., with participation from Viking Global Investors and others. This valuation would make Color a “unicorn,” which is an industry term for a private startup worth over $1 billion.
Through partnerships with public and private institutions such as the City of San Francisco, the Teamsters Union, the National Institutes of Health, Salesforce, the State of California, and United Airlines, Color's infrastructure and software make it possible for large populations to receive essential healthcare services directly where they live or work, officials stated.
These include testing and telehealth services for preventive health and infectious disease management. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Color has partnered with more than 100 major employers and universities to provide critical testing programs. Color's software is helping to power the State of California's efforts with PerkinElmer to process up to 150,000 COVID-19 tests daily. Additionally, Color's partnership with the City of San Francisco has helped the city maintain one of the nation's highest per-capita COVID-19 testing rates, officials contend.
"We are building the rails for a national technology-based public health infrastructure," Color CEO Othman Laraki said in a prepared statement. "The inability to deliver basic healthcare services during the biggest health crisis of our lifetime is a direct consequence of the lack of a public health delivery model. Public health does not only mean a government-funded model. A modern public health infrastructure should enable all of the stakeholders in the health of large populations – including governments, employers, and schools – to support the essential health needs of the people they serve. By investing in the technology that ensures easy and affordable access to healthcare, we're creating the infrastructure that will serve us for decades to come."
In addition to national COVID-19 testing programs and preventive healthcare services like genetic testing and counseling, Color is rolling out vaccine delivery systems to state and local governments, employers, and higher education institutions.
"The opportunity to design the future of public health through technology cannot be overstated," said Hemant Taneja, Managing Director at General Catalyst. "Color understands that often, challenges in healthcare aren't scientific or medical in nature, but rather due to access barriers. The hyper-scaling of access is perhaps the most impactful function of digital technology - and the fact that Color approaches healthcare from this vantage point makes it among the most important companies in the industry."
Color’s Chief Commercial Officer Caroline Savello, added, “The public health crisis in 2020 underscored the urgent need to make healthcare services convenient and cost-effective for every community. Color is building the technology framework that enables millions of people to access these essential services outside of the traditional health systems."
