UpStream Healthcare, a leading value-based primary care services and technology company, today announced a $140 million Series B funding, bringing its total funding to nearly $185 million to date. The round was co-led by technology and global growth investors Coatue and Dragoneer with additional participation from other top healthcare and technology investors, including Avidity Partners, Define Ventures and Mubadala.
UpStream supports physicians operating under full-risk, value-based arrangements who are providing care to seniors on Medicare with an integrated platform that emphasizes care quality, health equity and total cost of care. Its comprehensive suite of services and technology solutions empower physicians to achieve better outcomes for themselves, their practices, and their patients.
“I am thrilled that such a prestigious group have come forward to invest in UpStream in such a significant way,” said UpStream Board Chair Nick Loporcaro. “With this funding, UpStream can continue its mission in supporting thousands of primary care physicians who are transforming their practices to support value-based care for Medicare and Medicare Advantage patients.”
UpStream works by embedding pharmacists and other clinical staff into primary care physician practices and supports physicians with proprietary technology that anticipates patient needs, supports patient care, improves quality, and helps coordinate care for seniors with chronic conditions. UpStream’s clinically led teams coordinate care for patients with the greatest medical and social complexity. The company has helped its provider customers decrease in-patient and post-acute spend by 20 percent in mature cohorts while still allowing them to maintain an average 4.5-star quality performance for contracted seniors attributed to those practices.
Powered by this success, UpStream has expanded rapidly, partnering with physician groups in multiple states like North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina. For 2023 UpStream already announced new network relationships with Community Care Physician Network in North Carolina, Tidewater Medical Group in Virginia, and Medical University of South Carolina Health Alliance, and independent physician association Primary Care Associates in South Carolina.
“Primary care physicians are an integral part of the U.S. healthcare system, and all share a mission to see their senior patients live healthy, independent lives free from the burden of chronic disease. However, they often lack the resources and technology to achieve their goals while also struggling to thrive financially in the value-based care era. That’s what UpStream brings to the table and is why we are seeing unprecedented adoption among major physician groups,” said Dr. Sanjay Doddamani, co-founder and CEO of UpStream. “We’re honored to have attracted such a diverse and stellar mix of top investors – each of whom bring unique quality and experience that’ll be invaluable for us to continue growing.”
Fergus Hoban, the pharmacist and entrepreneur who founded UpStream in 2018 said, “UpStream’s growth comes at a time when primary care physicians are struggling with inadequate resources and are experiencing significant burnout.” He added, “UpStream’s unique value-based payment model ties clinical quality and outcomes and helps ensure financial stability in an otherwise unpredictable financial environment.”
“As an early investor, we’ve been thrilled with UpStream’s progress. Together, UpStream and its physician partners have improved patient outcomes and decreased costs of care significantly beyond our initial expectations,” said Eric Jones, Partner at Dragoneer. “The diverse class of physicians that will join UpStream in 2023 – spanning independent practices to large health systems – is a testament to the strength of UpStream’s partnership model and the value of their embedded clinical services. We’re excited to deepen our commitment to the company as they expand to make their services available to physicians nationwide.”
Aaron Weiner, Managing Director of Coatue added: “Robust population analytics and interoperable data are mission-critical to delivering better outcomes for patients. Coatue believes UpStream’s technology platform can become category-defining in its regard for value-based primary care.”
As adoption of value-based care models continues to spread across the healthcare industry, UpStream plans to use the funding to scale its model to physicians nationwide, enabling them to transform the lives of their senior patients. J.P. Morgan acted as sole placement agent.
UpStream Healthcare Company is a global risk, managed services organization providing physicians with the support and systems they need to improve healthcare for seniors. The company provides a powerful platform that allows physicians, pharmacists and nurses to work together in primary care practices to achieve better outcomes and value. For more information, please visit upstream.care.
