Ian Koons, like many others, has a personal connection to heart health. Over 750,000 people in the U.S. have a heart attack each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and heart disease is consistently noted as one of the leading causes of death around the world.
"This is why I started the company," Koons told Albuquerque Business First. "My best friend had a heart attack and passed away. We all have that personal connection."
Koons launched Albuquerque-based startup Karoo Health alongside a pair of co-founders — Ben Selzer, the startup's chief financial officer, and Chad Moore, who provided early leadership guidance — in 2021. Selzer served in a variety of C-level positions at a large East Coast-based dermatology group and helped lead a different health care-focused startup before co-founding Karoo Health. Koons is a serial entrepreneur who has founded and helped scale several private equity and venture capital-backed provider organizations.
The startup's mission is to bring more value to the practice of cardiovascular health care by helping transform the market from a volume-driven model to a value-driven one. It combines on-site and virtual care teams in partnership with cardiology networks, health plans and health systems.
For instance, a person experiencing chest pain may go see a physician, only to get five minutes of care that amounts to "eat healthier" or "take more walks," Koons said. Karoo Health wants to fill a gap in patient care by partnering with cardiologists and employing health coaches and nutritionists to more intentionally walk people through their cardiovascular care journeys, he added.
Any communication — which is short messaging-based — between a coach and a patient is put on an electronic medical record that's then shared with Karoo Health's partnered cardiac health providers. That way, those physicians can have more information about how to effectively care for patients, Koons said.
"We're starting with the sicker of the sick population that needs us the most," he added. "We have modeled a lot of our … lessons learned from other disease states that have proven effective in reducing the total cost of care, in improving outcomes and also from just a financial perspective."
After bringing in $1 million through a pre-seed round early last year, Karoo Health announced the close of its seed investment round Wednesday. While the company initially targeted raising $3 million, Koons said the seed round — typically one of the early equity funding stages for startup companies — closed at $3.4 million.
The startup has raised around $4.4 million to date.
Money from its seed raise will support Karoo Health's launch this summer throughout the Southwest, Koons said. He added that the startup plans to work with up to 100 providers across the region and is looking to continue expanding through joint venture partnerships with cardiologists, as opposed to software vendor-type partnerships.
"We have a joint venture so that we really only benefit when we benefit together," he said. "Our success is tied together."
Karoo Health also works with health care payers to set up alternative payment models where the startup gets paid commensurate with the value that it brings to patients. It's what's called a "value-based care" model, as opposed to a more traditional "fee-for-service" model, Koons said.
The company wants its first rollouts to take place in New Mexico, and, eventually, bring a workforce of around 200 people to the Land of Enchantment over the next four to five years. Those would be for corporate positions, Koons said, and added the 200 number comes from future revenue growth models.
"Over the coming year, it is our hope that we start hiring and maintaining a more formal headquarters here in Albuquerque," Koons said. "So, ultimately, when we talk about these corporate [positions], it really depends on, are we able to recruit at the level that we want to operate.
"But absolutely, from someone who lives here, we would really love to hire — and it could be more than 200 — here in New Mexico," he continued.
First Trust Capital Partners, an Illinois-based venture firm, led Karoo Health's seed round, with participation from new investors GoGlobal, Inflect Health and returning investors Panoramic Ventures, which led its pre-seed round, and First Mile Ventures. Angel investors contributed to the round, as well.
Koons said Karoo Health plans to raise a Series A round — a round aimed at scaling proven startup companies — around this time next year, which he said could target $15 to $25 million.
