D.C.’s Chamber Cardio Inc. has raised $8 million in seed funding to execute what its CEO describes as “ambitious plans for nationwide expansion.”
The 1½-year-old startup intends to use that capital to beef up its team, develop its technology, break into new markets and add more cardiology practices to its network — all in a play to help drive down health care costs and improve care for heart disease patients, co-founder and CEO George Aloth said in an email.
“Our vision is to recognize and reward cardiologists for their holistic patient care, emphasizing preventive care and maintaining health, thus reducing acute events,” he told me. “We see the need for cardiology to catch up with other specialties, such as primary care, nephrology, and oncology, in embracing value-based care.”
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based General Catalyst led the round, the company said Wednesday. Company Ventures, American Family Ventures, City Light, all of New York, and AlleyCorp, an existing investor, also participated.
The latest infusion brings Chamber’s lifetime funding to $9.5 million, following a pre-seed round in 2022.
Chamber aims to help cardiologists shift to value-based care models, which base insurance reimbursement on outcomes, rather than the services provided. That is intended to improve the quality of care and, therefore, patient outcomes, thereby also saving the payors money.
The startup, therefore, is looking to strike deals with insurers, while adding more cardiology practices to its roster. Its tech platform gives those medical groups insight into their patients, and handles administrative work so the doctors can focus on providing care. Chamber takes its revenue from those savings, as do the cardiologists and insurers.
Chamber already operates in Maryland, Virginia and D.C., working with more than 75 cardiology providers. It wants to first grow its presence within the Mid-Atlantic region “to impact as many lives as we can of those suffering from heart disease,” Aloth said. “There is still ample room for growth within the existing region.”
But the company is also aiming to expand its footprint to the Southeast, Southwest and, potentially, West Coast this year. As part of that work, he said, “we anticipate rapid growth in the number of cardiology practices we work with.”
The seven-person Chamber is now looking to double its headcount with openings for finance, business development and technology roles. It’s also hiring health care professionals, such as patient care coordinators and liaisons to work with the cardiology practices, “to support the increasing demand for our services,” Aloth said. And those hires, he said, are critical to “maintaining the momentum of our company’s growth.”
The health care industry is slowly shifting toward a value-based care model, but that evolution among cardiologists hasn’t quite taken off, according to Chamber. McLean kidney care company Somatus and Bethesda primary care-focused firm Aledade are among the companies pushing that change. And others, like a new venture from Kaiser Permanente, continue entering the scene.
“It’s crucial to emphasize the magnitude of the problem we’re addressing,” Aloth said, citing data that show cardiovascular care is leading cost for both employers and health plans at about $450 million in 2022 alone — a number that’s also growing as the population ages.
“This highlights the urgent need for the adoption of value-based care,” he said, noting that about 120 million Americans have some form of heart disease. And it disproportionately affects people of low socioeconomic status, he said, adding that “the need for change is undeniable.”
Aloth was previously a group president for Somatus and, before that, president and CEO of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield’s community health plan for D.C. He co-founded Chamber in September 2022 with Dr. Sameer Sheth, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital also with experience in the digital health space, and Dr. Jeffrey De Flavio, co-founder of New York’s Pearl Health and founder Groups Recover Together, Boston-area outpatient clinic network for opioid addiction.
