Joe Connolly watched his mom struggle for years. She would vomit from such extreme pain during her periods. She also suffered at the hands of the doctors who repeatedly dismissed her.
“She was basically told to take some Ibuprofen and tough it out,” he said.
Her first and only option after about 25 years of suffering was to get a hysterectomy. She had endometriosis, which affects about 10% of reproductive-age women and girls around the world, according to the World Health Organization.
That experience of doctors dismissing her wasn’t unique, and the original thesis behind Visana Health was to provide better care for women with complex gynecological conditions like endometriosis and fibroids.
The Minneapolis-based startup just closed on a $10.1 million seed round co-led by Flare Capital Partners of Boston and Frist Cressey Ventures of Nashville, Tennessee. Venture Investors, which has offices in Madison, Milwaukee and Ann Arbor, Michigan, also participated in the oversubscribed seed financing with InHealth Ventures, Oxeon Partners, Pixel Perfect Ventures and others, according to an announcement.
Connolly, CEO and co-founder of the company, said his personal north star is to improve patient outcomes at-scale. The funding will help to make that happen, and he expects the company to grow tenfold over the next year.
“We're experiencing a period of really rapid growth right now,” he said. “We're working with multiple Fortune 500 companies, national health plans. And we've basically proven that our model really works.”
Since proving that the model works, the funds will help scale operations and the product team to meet the demand Visana is currently experiencing. Connolly believes the company will treat “tens of thousands” of patients next year.
The virtual-first comprehensive women’s health clinic provides inclusive care for a range of women’s health conditions, the announcement said, noting that Visana’s patients have more than three co-morbidities on average.
“The typical clinical model for women’s healthcare today leads to underdiagnosis, delayed treatment, and ineffective, expensive procedures,” according to the announcement. Instead, Visana offers a tech-enabled clinical model that leads to more efficient diagnoses and personalized treatment plans. Visana is staffed by women's health experts dedicated to fixing the broken system that is failing women, according to its website.
For now, with capital secured, Connolly said Visana is building out operations, expanding its network with the help of investors and beefing up its leadership team.
“This is what we set out to do, so it feels really good to be able to achieve that goal and to continue to build out the company so we can help more and more people,” Connolly said.
