The US healthcare system’s capability disaster has reached a breaking level in neurology, the place 145 million Individuals with continual neurological situations face common wait occasions of 4-6 months to see a specialist, if they will discover one in any respect. This scarcity isn’t simply an inconvenience; it’s forcing tens of millions to cycle by way of emergency departments, endure preventable struggling, and watch treatable situations worsen whereas they wait. Neura Well being tackles this disaster head-on with a complete digital neurology platform that delivers appointments inside seven days, combining board-certified specialists with AI-powered workflows and steady care coordination. The corporate has already served over 43,000 sufferers nationwide, reaching a 73% discount in ER visits and a 66% improve in sufferers’ world impression of enchancment – outcomes that caught the eye of the American Coronary heart Affiliation’s Go Pink for Ladies Enterprise Fund, which made Neura its first-ever funding. With their latest growth into reminiscence care addressing the vital scarcity of cognitive neurologists (only one per million dementia sufferers), Neura is constructing the infrastructure layer that well being techniques have to handle neurological care at scale.
AlleyWatch sat down with Neura Well being CEO and Founder Elizabeth Burstein to be taught extra in regards to the enterprise, its future plans, latest $11.4M Collection A spherical that brings whole funding to $21.7M, and far, far more…
Who had been your buyers and the way a lot did you elevate?
We raised a $11.4M Collection A led by the American Coronary heart Affiliation’s Go Pink for Ladies Enterprise Fund, marking the fund’s first-ever funding. Further contributors embody Norwest Enterprise Companions, Koch Disruptive Applied sciences, Esplanade Ventures, Pear VC, Correlation Ventures, and E12 Ventures.
Inform us in regards to the services or products that Neura Well being presents.
Neura is addressing an pressing unmet want for sub-specialty, patient-focused neurological assist. 145 million Individuals stay with a neurological situation, but the typical wait time for an appointment with a neurologist is no less than 4–6 months attributable to a nationwide supplier scarcity (American Academy of Neurology). Neura is closing the entry hole with a first-of-its-kind, complete platform that mixes digital visits with high neurologists and neurological sub-specialists, alongside AI-powered workflows, an intuitive app with built-in symptom monitoring, streamlined care navigation, and personalised schooling and training.
What impressed the beginning of Neura Well being?
Previous to founding Neura, I led product improvement at LinkedIn, Maven Clinic, and Zocdoc, all of which uncovered me to the promise of know-how to do proper by sufferers. In March 2020, I grew to become affected person myself – I developed an advanced nerve entrapment situation. Regardless of having had 7 radiology exams, 3 rounds of bodily remedy, and 10 nerve blocks and epidural steroid injections, I’ve not discovered any efficient reduction. The expertise has uncovered me to the fragmented system, challenges with specialist entry, and lack of integration with well being trackers. After diligently documenting my ache patterns on a Google sheet, I couldn’t discover a specialist to commonly have interaction with me on this knowledge to enhance therapy. I spotted how badly issues wanted to alter for sufferers and for the system at massive.
How is Neura Well being totally different?
Not like level options targeted on only one situation or that provide text-only care, Neura’s care mannequin delivers accessible, complete neurological care constructed for each high-quality outcomes and high-touch assist, whatever the situation. Neura is the one tech-enabled care mannequin to assist the total spectrum of neurology situations, together with eight main situation classes: headache and migraine, epilepsy, continual ache, concussion, stroke restoration, dementia, and undiagnosed neurological signs.
What market does Neura Well being goal and the way large is it?
Neura is concentrated on sub-specialty, patient-focused neurological assist. Over 145 million Individuals endure from continual neurological situations, and in accordance with the American Academy of Neurology, there are solely roughly 21,000 neurologists throughout america. This reveals us there’s a large alternative to assist these struggling entry assist, wherever they’re.
What’s what you are promoting mannequin?
Neura has solid partnerships with greater than 40 well being plans, together with Aetna, Blue Protect of California, Cigna, Sana, Anthem Blue Cross, TriWest, and Medicare, permitting us to combine seamlessly into the medical system and provide in-network therapy to sufferers. For others, we provide efficiency ensures or extra value-based care agreements.
We’ve additionally partnered with main well being techniques like Sentara Well being to increase their bandwidth and deal with the widest array of neurological situations, and have referral partnerships with life sciences leaders akin to Theranica and Otolith Labs. These are primarily charge for service agreements.
How are you making ready for a possible financial slowdown?
We’re taking crucial precautions for our enterprise, together with minimizing pointless prices and maximizing our income. That mentioned, we imagine that, as a result of we provide such a vital piece of healthcare, well being plans will proceed to acknowledge and spend money on our providing.
What was the funding course of like?
We had been actually energized and excited by the strategic synergies between Neura and the American Coronary heart Affiliation’s Go Pink for Ladies Enterprise Fund. The Go Pink for Ladies Enterprise Fund is concentrated on situations that have an effect on girls distinctively, in a different way, or disproportionately, so Neura’s concentrate on many of those situations (migraine, stroke restoration, dementia, continual ache) ties in nicely.
What are the largest challenges that you simply confronted whereas elevating capital?
One of many largest challenges in elevating capital has been serving to buyers actually perceive our go-to-market. It’s not a easy, single-channel mannequin — we now have a multi-pronged strategy that touches sufferers, suppliers, and payers. That’s intentional, as a result of healthcare doesn’t transfer by way of one clear distribution path. Nevertheless it additionally means our story takes a bit extra time to clarify.
Quite a lot of buyers are inclined to bucket corporations into acquainted patterns — pure B2B, or D2C, or payer-focused — and we don’t match neatly into any a type of. The problem was exhibiting how the totally different components of our mannequin reinforce one another, and why that complexity truly creates sturdiness and scale over time. As soon as we discovered buyers who actually obtained that, the conversations clicked — they may see the larger image we had been constructing towards.
One of many largest challenges in elevating capital has been serving to buyers actually perceive our go-to-market. It’s not a easy, single-channel mannequin — we now have a multi-pronged strategy that touches sufferers, suppliers, and payers. That’s intentional, as a result of healthcare doesn’t transfer by way of one clear distribution path. Nevertheless it additionally means our story takes a bit extra time to clarify.
Quite a lot of buyers are inclined to bucket corporations into acquainted patterns — pure B2B, or D2C, or payer-focused — and we don’t match neatly into any a type of. The problem was exhibiting how the totally different components of our mannequin reinforce one another, and why that complexity truly creates sturdiness and scale over time. As soon as we discovered buyers who actually obtained that, the conversations clicked — they may see the larger image we had been constructing towards.
What elements about what you are promoting led your buyers to jot down the test?
Our buyers had been drawn to a couple key elements that make our enterprise uniquely positioned to guide in neurological care supply. First, we’ve developed proprietary know-how that permits scalable bandwidth extension for clinicians — permitting well being techniques to develop entry to high-quality neurological care with out including employees. This know-how isn’t only a workflow instrument; it’s a deeply built-in platform that helps prognosis, monitoring, and administration throughout the total spectrum of neurological situations.
Second, we’re the one resolution available in the market designed to function a real bandwidth extender for a whole neurology division, not only for one or two area of interest situations. That breadth is vital for big well being techniques, the place neurological sufferers current with all kinds of problems — and the place operational effectivity and scientific consistency are important.
Finally, buyers noticed that we’re constructing not only a product, however the infrastructure layer that well being techniques will rely upon to handle neurological care at scale.
What are the milestones you propose to realize within the subsequent six months?
For the following six months, we’re targeted on forging partnerships with further well being plans, well being techniques, and clinics throughout the nation and reaching extra sufferers. We’ll additionally proceed to spend money on our scientific mannequin and crew.
Moreover, we’re constructing the inspiration for long-term scientific breakthroughs. Neura is aggregating one of many largest real-world proof datasets in neurology, centralizing outcomes, signs, and therapy knowledge which have lengthy been siloed throughout the healthcare system. This yr, we’ll proceed to construct this dataset, pushing towards our long-term aim of discovering life-changing medical options by studying from the expertise of each neurology affected person.
What recommendation are you able to provide corporations in New York that should not have a recent injection of capital within the financial institution?
If your organization doesn’t at present have a brand new injection of capital within the financial institution, the perfect plan of action is to gradual your burn and concentrate on scaling profitably. This implies fastidiously evaluating spending, extending your runway, and prioritizing actions that generate sustainable income fairly than speedy, inefficient development.
In parallel, conduct first ideas person analysis — return to the basics of your buyer wants and validate whether or not what you are promoting or product is really distinctive among the many competitors. Deeply understanding your customers and differentiating your providing will place you to develop extra effectively and entice capital beneath stronger phrases later.
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