Denver serial entrepreneur Robert Seigel learned in 2020 that his oldest son, Spencer, was experiencing delayed development of his core muscles, prompting Seigel and his wife to get him an occupational therapist.
Between the family's weekly visits with the OT, they wanted to lead Spencer through exercises that would help his core. For ideas, Seigel turned to his sister, Lily Baiser, an experienced pediatric occupational therapist living in Florida. Baiser texted Seigel ideas for activities that would help.
"We were in a really fortunate situation where I had someone who I trusted that was just a text away," Seigel said. "All of a sudden, Spencer's progress just skyrocketed."
The experience led Seigel to realize that other families could benefit from being connected with a provider who would help them maintain momentum between appointments. Based on that idea, Seigel and Baiser founded Kinspire, a platform through which families are connected with an OT who offers in-person sessions, stays connected with parents via messaging and educates families about at-home exercises. A child's progress is tracked and measured through the Kinspire mobile app.
Seigel views Kinspire's care model as a shift away from traditional OT delivery.
"Oftentimes, there isn't a lot of support, and the parents don't get any guidance. They're totally disconnected from the experience," Seigel said. "I realized jointly with my sister, 'Why can't we reinvent the care model so that parents get the support they need?' That's really the origin and intent of Kinspire."
The startup raised $3.6 million in seed funding this month to grow its number of providers and patients. The round was led by Corazon Capital and Looking Glass Capital. Also participating were Difference Partners, Great Oaks VC, Service Provider Capital, The Fund, Copper Wire Ventures and angel investor Bradley Tusk.
Kinspire providers deliver care in four states — Florida, Texas, Colorado and California — and Seigel is looking to keep it that way for at least the near future. With the raise, Kinspire will work on expanding care throughout those four states and reaching more families.
So far, the startup employs nine occupational therapists, and it has a waitlist of providers wanting to work for Kinspire. The startup will continue to hire providers as more families join the platform, Seigel said. Kinspire charges a fee of $199 per month. Going forward, Seigel and Baiser are trying to make the platform accessible for more families by expanding their list of insurance coverage providers.
"We do have some reimbursement in Florida and Texas, but we have to get more and put in efforts to expand that," Seigel said. "Ultimately, that increases access."
In addition to growing its patients and providers and working to accept more insurance offerings, the brother-sister duo plan to use the seed raise to invest in the platform's technology and improve the quality of care that's being offered.
The process of raising the seed round took longer than Seigel expected given the recent pullback in venture capital, he said. Seigel and Baiser were looking for investors who had experience in the health care industry to advise them, and they succeeded with the investors who joined their round, Seigel said.
"Health care is hard, and changing the care delivery model is hard," Seigel said. "We wanted to make sure these investors were in this for the long term and willing to go through some bumps as we figure everything out."
Seigel has a long history in the tech startup world, having previously worked for one startup and founded another. He was a software engineer at SolidFire, which was acquired by NetApp in 2015 for $870 million.
Following the acquisition, Seigel founded HeadsUp, a startup that used artificial intelligence to predict how weather would affect businesses. HeadsUp was acquired by Nodin in 2019 for an undisclosed amount. Seigel worked as the chief technology officer for Nodin before starting Kinspire.
