Thrive Capital leads healthtech startup Welkin Health’s $8 million Series A

Digital patient relationship platform Welkin Health has landed $8 million in Series A financing, led by Josh Kushner’s Thrive Capital. This now brings the total in the VC piggy bank to $12 million for the company.

Welkin launched in 2013 as a digital monitoring system for diabetics. It joined Rock Health in 2014 to create a disease management platform with robotic coaching tools similar to Livongo Health and other chronic condition management platforms. Welkin launched its first major pilot with Humana’s Innovation Group in 2015, helping to put the startup in a recognizable position among competitors.

Since then, it has grown to support 1,300 case managers working with 200,000 patients across multiple healthcare verticals. The company tells TechCrunch it is now “looking forward to announcing new Fortune 100 partnerships in Q1 of next year.”

The new cash will be used to create more tools to help those partnerships control how they configure their workflows within the system Welkin has created. Currently, Welkin does all the system configuration and integration work internally, so this should free up some of the time-consuming management and allow Welkin to focus on further growth of the company in other areas.

It also will be looking to hire more talent to accommodate that growth and “accelerate partnerships” with patient-centered digital health, life science and medical device companies.

“What impressed us about Welkin is their deep understanding of the healthcare industry coupled with their technical expertise,” Thrive Capital’s Kareem Zaki, who led the deal, said. “Not only have they built an impressive technological platform, but they are solving tangible problems for healthcare organizations and ensuring all key players are set up for success.”