Klara raises $3 million to advance its 'WhatsApp for medicine'
Klara, a New York-based healthcare messaging company launched in 2014, has raised $3 million in its most recent round of funding.
Company executives describe its cloud-based HIPAA-compliant messaging platform as a professional “WhatsApp” for medicine.
With the new funding, Klara will pursue its vision to build “the central nervous system of healthcare,” which will connect all medical providers, patients and other medical professionals such as pharmacies, labs and specialists together on one platform.
Founders Simon Bolz and Simon Lorenz, MD, launched Klara as a business-to-consumer telemedicine app and have since evolved the product into a messaging platform for connecting businesses to each other as well.
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Klara’s cloud-based web and mobile apps are used by hundreds of health systems across the country, ranging from solo-provider practices to pharmacy companies, large medical groups and enterprise-level hospitals. Medical teams communicate with tens of thousands of patients sending hundreds of thousands of messages every month, according to the founders.
“We see healthcare as a network, with doctors and patients being the most important nodes communicating with each other,” Bolz said in a statement. “If we want to digitize healthcare, we have to build something that both, medical staff and patients love using everyday to communicate. Messaging has turned out to be the perfect fabric to build this network, as it has already become the standard way to communicate in our personal and professional lives.”
New York’s Lerer Hippeau Ventures and Project A Ventures from Berlin led the funding, with existing investors including German VC Atlantic Labs and Groupe Arnault also participating in the round.
Twitter: @Bernie_HITN
Email the writer: bernie.monegain@himssmedia.com
