Case Study
Iora Health
Disrupted the broken US healthcare system with a unique tech-enabled primary care model.
Sector
- Healthcare
Status
Acquired by One Medical
The Opportunity
Co-founded by a repeat .406 founder, Iora Health was the pioneer in what has now become the massive value-based primary care category.
Starting in the early 2000s, Iora’s clinical co-founder, Dr. Rushika Fernadopulle, was the original–and remains the most active –advocate for building value-based primary care models (like Iora and Oak Street) that align incentives to help patients address their health holistically in partnership with their primary care doctor.
Our insights from the industry, as well as our previous experience with Rushika’s co-founder Chris McKown (also co-founder of .406 portfolio company HealthDialog), made us especially receptive to the potential of Iora Health and its vision for a new model of team-based care that puts the patient first as well as a payment system that is based on care quality and outcomes, not billing codes and volume.
The .406 / Iora
Partnership
The .406 team was proud to lead Iora’s Series A financing before the company had any revenue. In addition to funding Iora and sitting on Iora’s board for over a decade, .406’s key contributions to Iora’s success included:
- Advising on Iora’s foundational technology strategy, including identifying, interviewing, and helping to recruit key early tech hires including VP Engineering and Chief Product Officer
- Introducing and helping recruit key executives, including interim CFO and clinical recruiter
- Devising the financial structure that Iora used to secure investment from strategic investors including Tufts Health Plan, Humana, and United Healthcare
- Liam’s chairing Iora’s compensation committee which designed innovative programs for complicated national business as it grew from a dozen to over 1,200 employees
- Referring several innovative companies that partnered with Iora to help them manage risk and deliver better care
- Co-leading Iora’s Transaction committee responsible for negotiating the sale of Iora to One Medical
The Outcome
Iora is now a core piece of Amazon’s healthcare business, having made its way there by first being merged with One Medical and then being part of Amazon’s acquisition of One Medical.
At the time it combined with One Medical, Iora was generating over $300M of revenue, serving nearly 40,000 patients, and consistently demonstrating market-leading results for reduced costs, improved outcomes, and high patient satisfaction.
.406 continues to enjoy a close and deep relationship with the Iora team. We have already backed one former Iora executive in a new company and expect to do something new with the Iora co-founder. In addition, we have placed several former Iora executives into .406 portfolio companies, including Iora’s former CTO, CFO, and General Counsel.
From the Iora Health Team
“Liam is always available to talk. Once when I called him on his cell for a reasonably trivial question, he stayed on the line for well over 15 minutes asking how things were. I then heard a strange noise in the background and he admitted he was in Istanbul on vacation, and it was the middle of the night, yet he was chatting as if he were in his office in Boston. I, of course, told him to hang up and we could talk when he returned, but that level of (borderline crazy) responsiveness is true to character.”