Ash announces $10M Series A funding to uplevel at-home testing to close healthcare gaps for millions

The Details 🔍

Ash is proud to announce a $10 million raise in Series A funding. The round was led by Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, a national health insurance plan, and several other strategic financial investors. This brings Ash's total funding to over $13 million.

Our platform simplifies the complex process of at-home testing management for healthcare organizations, particularly health plans and digital health organizations. With one integration, clients can access the full suite of services required to deliver hundreds of customized at-home tests to their patient populations, prioritizing user experience and patient engagement.

"Ash goes far beyond simple kit distribution and lab testing," says David Stein, CEO and co-founder of Ash. "Our platform provides an end-to-end experience that includes everything from customized kit designs, to a vetted lab network, to real-time reporting, to a UX that’sdesigned to improve patient engagement at every level. This funding will allow us to continue to help provider partners turn on at-home testing, increase test return rates, and ultimately close care gaps across the board."

Some numbers from clients switching to Ash that we are proud of:

• 2.4x increase in engagement rates
• 50% decrease in rejection rates
• 50% decrease in turnaround times
• 40% increase in gap closure rates

Additionally, we’re thrilled to welcome two new board members to the Ash team: Julie Smith, Chief Growth Officer at tango, and Jamie Hall, President and CEO at CirrusMD. Harry Leider, MD, MBA, also joins Ash as Chief Medical Officer to ensure our programs’ clinical soundness and validate new lines of business.

Integral to our success is the amazing team that we have built. We are also so thankful for our wonderful clients, investors, and greater team for recognizing our mission and standing behind us—we are grateful for the ongoing support! 

Our Evolution🌱

Ash was founded in 2019 by David Stein, Kyle Waters, Mio Akasako, and Nick Sempere, and Emma Rayner, born out of personal challenges accessing healthcare as part of the LGBTQ+ community. While we were initially focused on delivering at-home tests to consumers directly, that goal evolved during the pandemic to help provider partners turn on self-collected testing.

Today, we offers hundreds of at-home tests across multiple health areas, including fertility, heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes, obesity, sexual health, and cancer screenings. Since its inception, Ash has shipped over 500,000 at-home kits in the U.S., helping hundreds of healthcare organizations improve their care gap closure rates and quality measures. Customers range from Gold Coast Health Plan to digital health companies such as Accolade, MISTR, Noom, LifeMD®, Sesame, and Legacy.

Key features of Ash's platform we’ve built across the years:

• Customized branding across the entire patient experience
• A vetted network of CLIA and CAP-accredited labs
• Multi-channel engagement methods to capture valuable patient data
• Advanced API integration for seamless incorporation into existing systems
• Real-time reporting and analytics

Our Path Forward🚀

Our focus on overall care gap closure, rather than just test kit return rates, has already proven crucial in helping healthcare organizations improve their quality measures and reimbursement rates. As mentioned earlier, clients switching to Ash have seen rejection rates reduced by 50% and turnaround times shortened by 50%, with tests shipping to patients in less than 24 hours.

“By bringing health testing into the home, Ash aims to help patients who are unable or unwilling to access traditional labs. This has the potential to provide new home-based models of care, reduce barriers to access, and better connect patients to the healthcare system,” says Prem Tumkosit, Managing Director of the Merck Global Health Innovation Fund.

We’ll use the new funding to expand our team across product, operations, and engineering. We’re also laser focused on accelerating product development around gap closure, and doubling down on research into patient engagement.

"In today's healthcare landscape, engaging hard-to-reach populations and bringing them back into the care cycle is a significant challenge," adds Kyle Waters, co-founder and Chief Product Officer. "Our vision is a healthcare system where every patient, regardless of their circumstance, has access to the tests they need. Our platform is designed to address this issue head-on, providing health plans and digital health organizations with the tools they need to not just distribute tests, but to truly connect with and care for their members."

Our mission has always been to provide inclusive and accessible healthcare for all, and we are galvanized at the opportunity to broaden our scope to bring healthcare into the home for a wider population. We’re grateful for all of the support, and will continue to provide the best possible at-home testing solutions for our clients to ultimately excite and engage their patients.

Reach out🤝

For press inquiries, please contact us at press@poweredbyash.com.

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