Upfront, a Chicago health-care technology startup, continues to raise money despite a slowdown in venture capital funding across the country.
The global digital health funding market in particular has cooled. It hit $10.4 billion in the first quarter of 2022, which was down 36% from the previous quarter and down 60% quarter-over-quarter, CB Insights' State of Digital Health 2021 Report showed.
But Upfront raised $11.5 million in a Series B funding round in November 2020 and recently announced it raised $10.5 million in oversubscribed Series C funding, which will be used to accelerate growth.
The Series C financing was led by Baird Capital, Echo Health Ventures and First Trust Capital Partners, with additional participation from existing investors that included LRVHealth, Hyde Park Venture Partners and Nashville Capital Network
The funding comes on the heels of Upfront’s strategic acquisition of PatientBond, a platform for consumer science for health care.
Now in more than 4,000 health-care locations, Upfront provides a digital platform that helps patients navigate the health care system.
Launched by Ben Albert and Carrie Kozlowski in 2016, Upfront’s software analyzes visits at health care facilities. The platform transforms the way health care is delivered using data science and helps providers generate scheduling and logistics improvements that can make them more efficient and profitable.
With an office located in Accenture Tower at 500 W. Madison, Upfront has more than 200 employees globally and is hiring aggressively at most client-facing roles across the company.
Albert, who is Upfront's CEO, wants Upfront to grow 50% in the next six months as well as grow its Chicago presence.
“Chicago is a great city to build a health-care technology business. We have access to amazing talent here and have a foundation in the community that enables us going forward,” he said. “We’ve doubled year-over-year for the last three years and we don’t see that trend slowing down.”
