RehabPulse has raised $4.5 million in Series B funding toward its goal of becoming a one-stop shop for accessible and affordable home medical equipment ranging from walkers and scooters to respiratory devices, the company said Wednesday.
Spun out of wheelchair technology company Rowheels Inc. in 2019, Middleton-based RehabPulse envisions being a robust e-commerce platform like Amazon.com that disrupts the durable medical equipment industry, similar to the way in which Rocket Mortgage revolutionized home buying, said Gaurav Mishra, the CEO of both Rowheels and RehabPulse.
"If you go to the doctor today ... and the doctor prescribes medicine for you, you are able to collect it in five minutes through the pharmacy," Mishra said. "But in durable medical equipment, nothing like that exists today ... we want to automate the system."
Investors in the recent fundraising round included Wisconsin Investment and Strategic Capital Partners (WISC Partners), a previous investor, and high-net-worth individuals active in the digital health care space, according to the announcement. RehabPulse has raised a total of $7 million in equity financing since 2018 and plans to close another $1.5 million next year, Mishra said.
According to recent data from PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), RehabPulse is valued at $25 million after its recent Series B funding.
"RehabPulse has the opportunity to revolutionize an area of health care that is cumbersome and antiquated,” said Juliet Breeze, a lead investor and the CEO of Houston's Next Level Urgent Care. “An update to the process of prescribing and obtaining durable medical equipment for patients in a cost-effective and convenient manner is long overdue.”
RehabPulse is an online marketplace for medical furniture and mobility equipment that patients can buy or rent directly through the site. The company recently rolled out an online insurance claim processing integration to help users get their purchases covered by health payers.
Looking ahead, RehabPulse plans to build out artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to add more automation and integrations to its platform. It also aims to build its existing virtual showroom into a virtual reality experience where patients can test out medical equipment without leaving their beds, Mishra said.
The company has around 25 employees, up from six in June, Mishra said. It's growing rapidly, with a development team in India, a billing team in Houston, and many of the company's corporate and high-tech functions in the Madison area, Mishra said. He expects the company's headcount to increase to around 200 in the next 12 to 18 months.
