*By Christian Smith*
The medtech start-up Heal has raised $20 million with plans to expand its house-call service to more cities in the United States.
The company announced its latest round of funding Tuesday, bringing the amount that the three year-old company has raised to more than $69 million. Heal's co-founder and CEO Nick Desai said he wants to use the new capital to expand and improve the technology that doctors can use to treat patients.
"The secrete sauce of Heal thus far has been to lower the operating costs of everything from booking and billing compared to a traditional office so that our doctors can do house calls," Desai said Tuesday in an interview with Cheddar. "Now we want to innovate technologies for the in-home care so that doctors have more data and more intelligence with which to deliver more precision care to patients."
The new investment comes from Bascom Ventures, Inflection Capital, IRA Capital, RLJ Equity Partners, Trans-Pacific Partners, and others including BET founder Robert Johnson, who told Cheddar he got involved with the start-up to help reach minority communities.
"It brings health care to people who in many cases are under-served because of their neighborhood, because of their economic status, or other factors that deprive them of the quality health care that most people would like to have," Johnson said.
As health care costs continue to rise across the country, Heal said it's looking to offer a more affordable option. The company has said its tech platform lowers operating costs and medical bureaucracy by 65 percent, leading to lower prices for patients.
Heal is one of a handful of health care start-ups that are looking to change the traditional patient-practice structure, where doctors see an average of 40 patients a day. One Medical is a primary care start-up with a membership model that cuts costs by limiting the number of patients its doctors see daily and using video consultations instead of in-office visits.
Doctor On Demand, another new primary care option, [recently raised $74 million](https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/25/video-consultation-service-doctor-on-demand-raised-74-million-so-everyone-can-see-a-doctor-anytime/) to expand its video consultation service capabilities.
Though these tech-based care providers only make up a small part of the health care market, major insurance companies are getting on board. Heal is an in-network PPO option for Blue Shield of California, Health Net, Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna, United Health Care, CareFirst, and other plans. Outside of an accepted healthcare plan, patients can see a Heal doctor at home for $99.
Since launching in March 2015, Heal doctors have made more than 60,000 house calls. The service is available in most major cities in California and in Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/doctor-house-call-start-up-heal-expanding).
Enterprise blockchain provider, BlockApps, recently raised $41 million in a new funding round led by Liberty City Ventures. BlockApps builds products and applications for other companies on its own blockchain platform called STRATO. The company says its blockchain technology can help businesses increase the value of their assets, streamline their supply chains, and help them meet their sustainability goals. Kieren James-Lubin, President & CEO of BlockApps, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Tesla has continued to beat expectations as illustrated by its last quarter earnings despite issues in Shanghai, China. Dan Ives, the managing director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, joined Cheddar News to talk about the resilience of Tesla. "I thought they were almost Cinderella-like numbers," he said about the delivery numbers. "They are performing just miles ahead of any auto player, and that's why the stock is doing what it's doing. In my opinion, they're expanding their lead in EVs, even in this Category 5 hurricane that we're seeing in China." Ives noted that issues in China could pose ongoing challenges going forward even with the largely positive outlook.
Dr. Neta Lavon, CTO and VP of R&D at Aleph Farms, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how the team sent cow cells to space to further research the production of meat in space, and why developing cultivated meat is so critical to the future of space travel.
A new report from DrakeStar Partners, an investment bank that closely tracks the sector, said $98.7 billion in deals were announced or closed in the first three months of the year. T
AT&T reported a 2.5 percent rise in its core wireless revenue for the first quarter as its 5G rollout expands across the United States, even as the company pivots away from streaming to focus on its communication business amid heightened demand for high-speed internet. CEO John Stankey joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the company's 5G plans, its divestment from WarnerMedia, and its push into the metaverse. "To the extent that we start to see social aspects come into the metaverse that allows people to — as they're out and about — experience those kinds of things, that just puts a higher premium on mobile networks and scaled robust mobile networks to enable those applications, which is our bread and butter, and it's probably one of our best returning and best yielding businesses," he said.
The last pocket of resistance in Mariupol, Ukraine, has been given a brief respite, the Biden admin is appealing the transit mask mandate being overturned, and Tesla reports earnings. Here is all the news you Need2Know for April 21, 2022.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 21, 2022, with President Biden set to announce more security assistance funding to Ukraine, polls showing a majority of Americans in favor of transit mask mandates, rapper A$AP Rocky's arrest, and more.
