In the past year, telehealth unicorn Ro has seen its Denver-based patient population grow nearly 70% as demand for its online services has skyrocketed.
To further serve that surging local need, the company has announced the opening of a new pharmacy distribution center in Denver that will help its patients receive medications and treatments faster.
New York City-based Ro positions itself as an alternative to the traditional primary care model that involves seeing a doctor, receiving your diagnosis and waiting for medication at the pharmacy.
“Ro is a vertically integrated primary care platform,” COO George Koveos said. “We handle everything from online diagnosis and delivery of medication directly to a patient’s door, to their ongoing care and conversations with a doctor.”
The company, which was founded in 2017, has already raised nearly $900 million in venture funding and was recently valued at $5 billion after a $500 million Series D raised in March. To date, Ro has facilitated more than 6 million online visits under its three primary brands: Roman, a men’s health clinic; Rory, a women’s health clinic; and Zero, a smoking cessation clinic.
Given the recent growth across this geography, 10% of Ro’s customers live in what it calls its Rocky Mountain Division, Koveos said the decision to open a pharmacy in Denver was a “no-brainer.”
“When we open a pharmacy, it’s really about providing faster delivery speed,” he said. “The fact that we had such growth in that region and Colorado itself, when we opened our pharmacy in Denver, all of a sudden it allowed us to get 96% of orders to patients in the Rocky Mountain region next day, for free.”
The remaining 4% is still free, but two-day delivery Koveos said, as Ro’s has eliminated the need to use air shipping for the region.
With the addition of a Denver pharmacy, Ro now has physical locations in Phoenix, Dallas and Portland, Oregon, as well as New York and Florida. Koveos said he expects Ro’s Denver team to be near 10 people by the end of the year, with additional growth planned for the future.
“We were so impressed with the talent we saw there,” he said, highlighting both the pharmaceutical and technology sectors in the area.
The company touts having patients in every county in Colorado, with the state being in the top 15 for treatment requests from Ro.
“Having our facility there means not only can they utilize this national digital service, but the actual location allows them to get next-day subscriptions delivered to their door,” Koveos said. “That is a gap that Ro is trying to fill, but specifically one we saw as a clear benefit to the state of Colorado.”
