A Bradenton virtual health company has received a $25 million Series B investment after seeing its growth more than double in the last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"Covid put everything on steroids, not because people needed the tech more now than before, they just more understand what it meant now," Qure4u founder Monica Bolbjerg said in an interview with Tampa Bay Inno. "So, patients and doctors see the benefits together versus one doctor or one patient — it wasn’t in sync before. When the doctors launch something, it's a win-win."
Boston growth equity firm Volition Capital was the sole investor in the round. Qure4u previously raised a $2.5 million Series A.
"Our company is really hot; we've been chased down by investors," Bolbjerg said. "We were not in a super hurry. We wanted to find the right investor at the right time. It's much more than capital. It's also the right board to help us because we’re growing very rapidly."
The funding comes on the heels of Boca Raton-based New World Angels selling its stock and warrant back to the company, receiving a $3.7 million return after investing $445,000 in 2018.
The company was founded in 2015 and provides 25 tools in its virtual health platform, spanning from telehealth services to online appointment scheduling and virtual appointment check-ins.
"I'm a physician also, and there are some things you want to be together [in person for], but there are a lot of things where they're not going back," Bolbjerg said, adding the platform has seen a surge in rural areas. "It's a bit like what happened in the airline industry. There was a kiosk, then you check-in at home, then there's an app at home; that's we’re doing."
Bolbjerg said the funding would most likely give the company a 24-month runway; it does not plan to seek future funding immediately. She expects to hire 30 to 40 employees in the next six months to join the current 50 employees. Half the workforce is located in Bradenton, while the other half resides in Atlanta.
"We're ramping up hiring people here and Atlanta now, but we hope to build it out of this area," she said. "We feel a lot of people are moving here and willing to relocate. A lot of investors have realized there's a lot of hot tech markets in Florida, so they're much more open to it."
