When you’re not feeling well and your doctor asks you to get labs drawn, you know that can increase the time between a diagnosis and care. But Getlabs, a company that brings the lab to you with its at-home, blood-drawing service, is aiming to eliminate that friction, and today announced a $3 million seed round led by PivotNorth Capital. The funding will be used to launch in Phoenix, Philadelphia, and Dallas, all of which have been soft launches so far.
“Seventy percent of all medical decisions are based on lab results, yet 30% of patients are non-compliant and skip their lab orders,” Getlabs said in a statement. For many, getting their labs drawn is just one more tedious step in getting the care they need.
With Getlabs, once a phlebotomist draws your blood, it can get processed in any lab of your choice, though the company already uses Labcorp and Quest Diagnostics.
The company charges for drawing the labs, but insurance pays for the blood work to be processed, as it normally would. To get your blood drawn at home, Getlabs charges the patient between $29-$49, and it’s based on when you want them to come to you.
“[Brick and mortar] labs usually charge a $25 blood drawing fee, which isn’t covered by insurance, so the $29 fee charged by Getlabs is only a couple more dollars,” Kyle Michelson, Getlabs founder and CEO, told TechCrunch.
Getlabs is the result of a challenge Michelson himself faced.
“I needed my labs done all the time while I was in Y Combinator [for another idea],” he said. “I was there for three months, and you’re scrambling to build a business, and I had no time, and the little time I had I spent driving to the lab and waiting for an hour. So it was just a miserable experience,” he said.
“I started looking into why people didn’t get their labs done, and the top reason was inconvenience,” he added.
Getting healthcare today often includes four trips: going to the doctor, the lab, back to the doctor and then the pharmacy. But with the massive growth of virtual care and with companies like Capsule, Amazon Pharmacy and PillPack (owned by Amazon) offering prescription delivery to your door, Michelson saw a gap in the market for a more convenient lab service, too.
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Getlabs, which is fully remote and has 37 employees, plans to use the funding to expand to Phoenix, Philadelphia and Dallas and also to expand to other verticals of home health. Other investors in the round include Tusk Venture Partners, Rosecliff Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures, CityLight Capital, Karlin Asset Management and angel investor Matthew Dellavedova.
“I believe Getlabs is the final step in delivering at-home healthcare that will be so crucial as more organizations and individuals see the benefits of telemedicine,” said Tim Connors, founder and managing partner at PivotNorth Capital.
While not all ailments can be treated virtually, when possible, “The end goal for Getlabs is to fully partner with telemedicine services so patients never have to leave the home,” the company said.
According to Edvard Engesaeth, co-founder of Nurx, “Getlabs could play an important part for healthcare companies like Nurx to treat more complex conditions where in-person blood draws are required by providing remote care in the home.”
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