Value-Based Kidney Care Company Strive Health Raises $140 Million in Funding Round

Denver-based Strive Health, a national company focused on value-based kidney care, has announced that the organization has secured a $140 million Series B round of funding.

This funding round was led by CapitalG, Alphabet’s independent growth fund. Redpoint also joins current investors NEA, Town Hall Ventures, Ascension Ventures and Echo Ventures to complete the round. The financing will “support the growing demand for Strive’s whole-patient solution for kidney disease populations,” and it brings Strive’s total funding to $223.5 million, officials stated.

Strive’s model combines technology with patient care, with the aim to slow kidney disease progression, prevent unnecessary and costly hospitalizations, and expand access to optimal renal replacement therapies such as home dialysis and transplants.

The growing national spotlight on kidney care and the demand for value-based healthcare solutions has helped Strive more than double its presence in regional markets and grow its employee base by more than 600 percent in the last year, its officials touted. Indeed, recent efforts at the federal level have set out to transform approaches to kidney care treatment by encouraging providers to intervene early and provide more holistic care for patients.

Last fall, for instance, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) finalized the structure of a payment innovation model that puts into place strong financial incentives for healthcare providers to manage the care of Medicare beneficiaries with chronic kidney disease (CKD) stages 4 and 5 and ESRD. The program, Kidney Care Choices (KCC), is an alternative payment model and its core goal is to incentivize nephrologists, dialysis facilities, and ESRD healthcare practices to focus on the total care of their patients. An ongoing issue, related to both cost and quality, is that kidney care has been traditionally focused around the late-stage patients, with incredibly high costs associated with patients who “crash” into dialysis. But models like KCC are structured to encourage participating practices to delay the onset of dialysis and instead focus on transplants.

Kidney disease affects 37 million adults and is the nation’s ninth leading cause of death. It also disproportionately impacts people of color and significantly elevates the risk of developing serious complications from COVID-19, Strive officials noted. Despite dismal outcomes, only 10 percent of people with CKD are aware they have the disease, over half of late-stage CKD patients have not seen a nephrologist, and roughly 60 percent of people who experience kidney failure do so in an unplanned way, they added. Indeed, currently, there is $410 billion of unmanaged kidney disease spend in the U.S.

As such, Strive has partnered with leading healthcare payers and providers, including Humana, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, SSM Health, Conviva Care Centers and more. Strive also has partnerships with hundreds of nephrology providers through new Medicare payment models and aggressive growth plans for the coming year.

Strive’s leaders say its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered data science models predict disease progression with greater than 95 percent accuracy. And if patients progress to kidney failure, Strive says it is equipped to coordinate transplants or flexible home dialysis. The company’s programs have improved care quality and shown up to 29 percent reduction in total healthcare spend, they asserted.

“Chronic and end-stage kidney disease patients continue to be underserved by the current healthcare system. Strive has built an industry-leading kidney care solution that has the potential to transform patients’ lives,” said Sumi Das, partner at CapitalG.

“Our focus is on providing great patient care. Technology is a critical aspect of doing this well, and our unique partnership with CapitalG will help us profoundly elevate our growth and technology vision by leveraging the insights and expertise of the best and brightest minds at Google and Alphabet,” added Chris Riopelle, CEO of Strive Health. “We are thrilled by how this partnership will take us to the next level and enable compassionate kidney care the way it should be done.”