A Chicago startup that helps hospitals with recruitment efforts has officially closed its Series A.
AMOpportunities first announced the round in April 2021 and unveiled an additional $2 million Series A2 raise to end 2021.
Now the company has added another $2 million Series A2, bringing its total venture funding to nearly $11 million since it launched in 2013.
New investors Laerdal Million Lives Fund and Lago Innovation Fund participated in the latest funding, as well as current investors PACE Healthcare Capital, OCA Ventures and HealthX Ventures. The Laerdal Million Lives Fund, established in 2020, invests in technologies and platforms that look to improve the health care quality and invested a total of $1 million in the startup.
As alluded to at a recent panel discussion during TechChicago Week earlier this summer, more companies are seeking extension rounds to get a little "more gunpowder" to get them through the hard times, and AMOpportunities is no exception.
"What we were thinking about is do we go out and raise a Series B, or do we look back at our existing investors as well as a few new ones to put more cash in the balance sheet," Kyle Swinsky, CEO of AMOpportunities, told Chicago Inno. "For us, it made sense to reopen because our investors wanted to continue moving forward, and we felt that with a little more cash now we could further boost the valuation and do more with the existing infrastructure."
Swinsky advised other startups looking at making similar decisions to "lean in" on the relationships that they already have.
"People still have mandates to make investments so they are still out there, but I think they're more selective," he said.
Both of AMOpportunities' reopenings brought in a new strategic investor at a time when most VCs are sticking to their portfolio companies.
Founded by Kyle Swinsky and Benjamin Bradley, AMOpportunities helps match medical students with clinical rotations in health care systems as staffing shortages continue to hamper the health care industry.
AMOpportunities moved to Chicago after initially launching in Madison, Wisconsin, in 2013 and Swinsky said he has no intention of ever leaving.
"It's still the health care epicenter," he said.
The startup will use the funding to expand its network of U.S. hospitals and global medical schools.
