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Founders: Allon Bloch (CEO), Ran Shaul, Israel Roth, Adam Singolda
Launched: 2016
Headquarters: New York City
Funding: $97 million
Valuation: $458 million (PitchBook)
Key technologies: AI, machine learning
Industry: Telemedicine
Previous appearances on Disruptor 50 List: 0
The global coronavirus pandemic has proved that business can be done remotely. Now we’re seeing that health care can be delivered that way as well. K Health is among a growing list of start-ups that offers patients access to care through their iPhone or Android device. After downloading the K Health app, a user can tell K what’s bothering them and what symptoms they’re experiencing. The AI-driven service makes it easy for users to see how doctors typically diagnose people with similar symptoms and biomarkers. The information will include what to watch out for as well as the tests and medications people needed to get better. Everything up until this point is free. If a person still wants or needs to chat with a doctor, the fee is $19, or $9 per month for unlimited chats. The doctor can then diagnose, prescribe medicine and order lab tests.
View the FULL LIST: 2020 DISRUPTOR 50
In May the company launched a suite of free Covid-related services, including symptom heat maps, personalized screening via the mobile app, unlimited texting with doctors and a map of testing-center locations.
K Health says that in the two years since its launch, it already has 3 million users in the U.S. K is available in all 50 states, and K Primary Care — the option to chat with a doctor — is available in 47 states. Other symptom checkers rely on static rules or protocols to give users their best guess at a diagnosis. K Health claims it is different because its AI technology was trained on millions of real anonymized medical records to give users more accurate results that are personalized to each situation.
Last year K Health announced a partnership with Anthem, the No. 2 health insurer in the U.S. Together the two companies have developed a consumer app that gives 40 million Anthem members access to personalized health care at a fraction of the cost of existing alternatives. During the pandemic, it is using K Health to scale symptom checking for the coronavirus remotely.
In February the company raised $48 million in a Series C round from investors, including 14W, Mangrove Capital Partners, Anthem and Primary Ventures. This brings its total funding to $97 million.
Disclosure: Comcast Ventures, a division of CNBC parent company Comcast, is an investor in K Health.
