A St. Paul-based health technology startup that looks to assist those with substance-use disorders is gaining traction.
YourPath, led by three co-founders who themselves live with long-term recovery for substance-use disorder, is in the process of raising $4 million in seed funding and was recently named as part of the Minnetonka-based UnitedHealthcare's accelerator program this year. Since the company first started seeing patients last year, it has helped more than 1,500 of them, said CEO and co-founder Jordan Hansen.
“The progress of our company has been incredible and the support from the local ecosystem has been just amazing,” he said.
Hansen and the other two co-founders Jeff Larson and Philip Gyura, who all have had careers in the health care field regarding substance-use recovery, launched the company in 2020, the CEO said. The personal connections the founders have to the field “have informed how we believe … we need a new reaction to the crisis."
About 2% of Minnesota adults experience a drug-use disorder and about 5.5% experience an alcohol-use disorder, according to the Minnesota Department of Human Services’ most recent biennial drug and alcohol abuse report. The report uses data from 2015.
Just 1 out of 10 adults received treatment for substance-use disorders, the report said.
YourPath aims to provide a health solution for substance-use disorders for patients, providers and payers, individually and at a population level, according to a description provided to the Business Journal. The company operates three main aspects: providing a virtual care model for patients to conveniently access care through their phone, collecting data intended to improve the quality of care, and using a platform to facilitate communication between care providers.
YourPath's options for patient care include a medical visit, medications and more, the website states. Getting access to such treatments through traditional processes can take weeks or be denied entirely, Hansen said.
The provider communication platform, which is currently being used internally, will launch for use among its partner organizations the first quarter of next year, Hansen said.
So far, YourPath has received $600,000 in pre-seed funding, Hansen said. It has also secured a lead investor for its current seed round, but Hansen did not disclose the entity. YourPath sees about $50,000 in monthly revenue, but is estimated to receive $100,000 in October, according to the CEO.
The company has 15 employees, including its own medical providers, based across the state, Hansen said. While focused on Minnesota for at least the next year, the company intends to expand hiring to outside the state in the future.
This year, YourPath was the only Minnesota-based startup to be chosen for the UnitedHealthcare Accelerator, which recently announced the 10 startups that will get access to mentorship from UHC executives and other industry experts as part of the four-month program.
“We're thrilled to be part of the cohort. The nine companies are absolutely incredible and being in that company is humbling and just terrific,” Hansen said.
