“Everyone in Zachariah Reitano’s immediate family has dealt with a life-threatening illness, ranging from congenital heart disease to cancer. But they also had access to a physician 24/7: his dad. ‘Whenever we had a question, we’d go to him and he would handle it from beginning to end,’ says Reitano, cofounder and CEO of New York-based digital health startup Ro and an alumnus of the 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 Healthcare list. ‘Part of me wanted to place my dad in everyone’s home.’

What started primarily as a telehealth business aimed at men for treating issues like erectile dysfunction and hair loss, now includes several business lines: Roman for men, Rory for women, Zero for smoking cessation and Plenity for weight loss. It offers a full stack primary care services, including its own pharmacy distribution centers and in-home diagnostic testing and other services. Ro announced a $500 million Series D round on Monday, which values the 3.5-year-old company at $5 billion. 

The investment, which comes less than eight months after Ro raised a $200 million Series C, exemplifies how drastically the Covid-19 pandemic has sped up adoption of digital health technologies. Virtual health venture deal activity hit a record of $2.3 billion invested across 192 deals in 2020, according to PitchBook. Returning investors General Catalyst, FirstMark Capital and TQ Ventures led the round, along with SignalFire, Torch and BoxGroup. New investors include Altimeter, Baupost and Dragoneer, among others. This brings Ro’s total funding to $876 million, which it will use to scale and build out its infrastructure, including more providers on staff, more pharmacy distribution centers and more at-home services.”

 

Read the full article on Forbes here.