New Medicare Advantage Player Has $360 Million in Venture Capital

A group of former Obama White House officials and executives from health-technology company Athenahealth Inc. will begin selling private health insurance to U.S. senior citizens, backed by $360 million in venture capital funding.

The company, called Devoted Health, will sell Medicare Advantage plans in Florida and wants to expand its offerings nationally.

The company was founded last year by Chairman Todd Park and his brother, Ed Park, and is based in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Todd Park co-founded Athenahealth and later served as the chief technology officer of the United States for former President Barack Obama.

Ed Park was an executive officer at Athenahealth for more than 20 years. He started out as Athenahealth's chief technology officer and later was the chief operating officer.

Devoted Health's head of technology, DJ Patil, previously was the chief data scientist for the United States during the Obama administration. From 2008 through 2011, he was the head of data products and chief security officer at LinkedIn.

Devoted Health plans to offer seniors what it says is simpler and better-coordinated health care using technology the founders have built from scratch. Devoted Health will offer a 24-hour call center, home-visits and automated care pings that alert a senior's family doctor when something goes wrong. The company has also built its own claims processing service.

Patil said that doctors who partner with Devoted Health will share in the cost savings from keeping patients healthy, and that underperforming doctors will be removed from the network.

Patil said that parents of a handful of employees are already signing up.

"I'll be honest, it's awesomely terrifying," Patil said.

Funding

Devoted Health raised $62 million from investors last year. The group of investors that participated in the first round included Venrock and F-Prime Inc.

Results of a second, $300 million round of venture capital funding were announced today. Andreessen Horowitz led the second round of funding.

Bryan Roberts, a partner at Venrock, is on Devoted Health's board, and Bob Kocher, another Venrock partner, is the company's chief medical officer.

Vijay Pande, the head of investments in biology and computer science companies at Andreessen Horowitz, will also have a seat on the Devoted Health board.

Devoted Health declined to comment on the company's valuation after the latest round of fundraising. The company's early funding, a $7.4 million seed round in the second quarter of 2017, came from the Park brothers and Venrock.

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