A Philadelphia health care startup focused on addressing gaps in maternity care for women experiencing social and health inequity has raised $3.2 million in a venture capital financing.
Cayaba Care plans to use the funds to advance its technology-enabled, community-based maternity care model.
The Series A financing was led by Flare Capital. Other investors included Digitalis Ventures, Kapor Capital, SteelSky Ventures, and a group of unidentified angel investors.
"We believe moms deserve to be heard," said Dr. Olan Soremekun, CEO and co-founder of Cayaba Care. "We are focused on designing empathetic solutions specifically rooted in the patient voice and bringing high-quality care that fits into their complicated lives."
The story behind the company's name is tied to Soremekun, who was born in Nigeria and belongs to the Yoruba ethnic group. The name Ayaba in Yoruba means queen. He and the other founders wanted to combine that with care, as opposed to health, because they believe care focuses more on wellness and the whole person.
Soremekun said his company's launch at the end of last year, and the new funding, come at a time when maternity and newborn outcomes in the U.S. are among the worst among developed countries. Recent studies show Black and Hispanic women in this country experience three to four times the rate of pregnancy-related morbidity and mortality. In Philadelphia, according to Cayaba, Black women account for 43% of all births but suffer 73% of all maternal deaths.
In December, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced its goal to reduce maternal mortality 50% by 2025.
Soremekun said Cayaba Care is building partnerships with obstetric practices that focus on extending care beyond practice walls.
The company is providing home and near-home clinical and behavioral health services, coordinating care, and addressing social determinants of health. Among the specific services the company provides are care coordination, benefit sign-up, routine maternity care in the prenatal and postpartum period, mental health/counseling, breastfeeding support, and patient education.
Cayaba Care is also using technology to improve access for patients, identify timely interventions, and improve overall health outcomes.
Soremekun said the way maternity care is currently provided, patients are asked to make and attend more than a dozen appointments before and after giving birth to achieve the best outcomes.
Not everyone is able to attend all the appointments, he said, because of barriers such as not having access to transportation, not being able to get off of work and — especially during the Covid-19 pandemic — not being able to arrange for child care.
"Our model is to bring care to the patients in their home," Soremekun said. "We send maternal care navigators to the patients to support their OB providers. What we do is provide an extra layer of support that recognizes life can be complex."
Soremekun said the company's nurse navigators, all of whom have prior health care training, use telemedicine to connect patients, in their home, with a care team — composed of doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners, social workers and others — to ensure women are getting the proper prenatal and postpartum care.
Cayaba Care makes sure patients have the proper broad connectivity in their home to interact with providers online. The company is also working to get providers to recognize many patients prefer to connect with providers through text message and apps, rather than the more traditional method of telephone calls.
Soremekun said the company, which has 21 full-time equivalents, is initially focusing on the Philadelphia region. Future plans include expanding to other East Coast cities with similar demographics. Long-term plans call for expanding nationally.
The company has already formed a partnership with Einstein Health Network's obstetrics department. It is in discussions with several other area health systems.
"The current obstetric practice provides exceptional care to patients who are able to make it into the office," said Dr. David Jaspan, Einstein's chairman of obstetrics. "For a variety of reasons patients may miss appointments."
Jaspan said Einstein's partnership with Cayaba Care provides a way for the health system to expand beyond traditional obstetrical care. "Together we will collaborate with our patients and their families to address specific social needs that have traditionally been overlooked, and create lasting solutions rather than episodic interactions,” he said.
Soremekun founded Cabaya Care with Dr. Mary Fleming, an OBGYN he met 10 years ago while both were at Einstein, and Kit Dobyns, whom he met a few years ago when they were both working at Cigna.
Fleming has practiced in various settings after completing the Minority Health Policy Fellowship at Harvard University, residency at Meharry University, and medical school at Vanderbilt University, and serving as a senior clinical advisor designing clinical programs targeting the underserved population.
Dobyns is co-founder of TrialSpark, a New York-based technology company that has developed a platform to automate and streamline the clinical trial process used to test new drug candidates.
Prior to working as a medical director at Cigna, Soremekun was vice chairman for clinical operations and new business initiatives at Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals, where he was also an associate professor in the department of emergency medicine.
