Sierra Ventures: Our Early-Stage Investment in Lemonaid Health
We’re excited to announce Sierra Ventures’ investment in Lemonaid Health.
Lemonaid Health is an online healthcare company providing convenient and affordable doctors’ visits and medicine delivery via their website and mobile app.
Their fully integrated telemedicine platform allows patients to receive the full spectrum of care from online consults to ordering lab tests and filling prescriptions. Their constantly growing offerings cover more than 20 medical services today, including mental health, primary care, and sexual wellness.
Given the challenges across the US in accessing care, we think Lemonaid Health has the potential to transform the healthcare industry for the better dramatically.
Lemonaid Health has developed a model that allows it to provide users with an incredibly fast and convenient experience. Pre-screening technology they’ve developed provides their doctors with important information before they even speak with patients. This leads to more efficient time spent in the appointment, with most appointments concluding within 15 minutes.
Lemonaid Health was founded by Paul Johnson and Ian Van Every and is based in San Francisco. The team is uniquely qualified to execute on their vision as they’ve both built and scaled telemedicine businesses in the UK before joining forces to build Lemonaid Health for the US market.
This experience has translated into their ability to execute and grow the business. This strong foundation has allowed them to thrive during COVID-19. Their experience has also manifested in their ability to quickly launch and scale new services as user needs and markets shift. Given these factors, we see a path to Lemonaid Health becoming a major player in this growing market, which today, is dominated by single service focused providers.
We’re seeing a huge secular trend developing as patients become more accustomed to receiving care online. According to FAIRHealth, less than 0.4% of all doctors’ visits (based on all private insurance claims) are done through telemedicine today. That is quickly changing as providers are seeing 50 to 175 times more patients via telehealth platforms than before the COVID-19 outbreak.
We believe this behavior will become more ingrained, and adoption will grow significantly. Another recent example of this dramatic shift comes from Providence Health which has seen telemedicine visits increase from 700 per month to 70,000 per week.
Lemonaid Health sees a future where a large portion of services offered in the traditional healthcare setting can be offered over telemedicine. We are excited to join Lemonaid Health to dramatically improve the ability for patients to access and receive high-quality care while building a large company in the process. We look forward to the journey and are excited to join a group of fantastic investors on this investment, including Olive Tree Ventures, Artis Ventures, Correlation Ventures, and Hikma Ventures.