Hinge Health’s system combines sensors with health coaches to help patients make sure they’re doing physical therapy exercises correctly. The company raised $90 million for its solution, intended to reduce musculoskeletal pain.
Hinge Health, a digital health startup targeting musculoskeletal pain, raised $90 million in a series C round. Bessemer Venture Partners led the round, with participation from Lead Edge Capital and all of Hinge Health’s previous investors.
The company builds programs to treat back pain by combining wearable sensors and Hinge’s health app, with physical therapists and health coaches. Hinge Health has already sold several large employers on its solution, including Vail Resorts and Walgreens, and the company has developed partnerships with 10 health plans, including Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas.
CEO Daniel Perez and COO Gabriel Mecklenburg co-founded Hinge Health in 2015, with both having experienced broken bones or ligament tears. They were pursuing PhDs before they met at the Oxford Biotech Roundtable, when they had the “aha moment” for the company.
“We looked at how evidence base was strongly in favor of a multi-pronged approach,” Perez said. “We though the data was so overwhelming.”
Hinge Health sells its solution to employers. The main return is being able to prevent unnecessary surgeries, avoiding two out of three surgeries, Perez said. The system is also helpful to patients who might otherwise find it challenging to make it to physical therapy appointments.
“Traveling to physical therapy, taking the time off work, coordinating childcare and then adding a $20 to $30 copay, you can see how the model becomes challenging for members with chronic back or joint pain, which can require continual visits,” Perez said.
The app guides patients through their physical therapy exercises and uses sensors to detect if they’re doing them correctly. The company also connects patients with a dedicated coach to check in with them and motivate them through their progress.
Last year, the company published a study in npj Digital Medicine showing users of its system reported 62 percent improvement in chronic low back pain and 64 percent improvement in the pain’s impact on their daily lives. The randomized controlled trial included 177 participants reporting non-specific low-back pain.
The company has had “phenomenal uptake,” Perez said, tripling its customer base at the end of 2019. Hinge Health has implemented its software for more than 200 customers, and has retained all of its customers to date.
Perez attributed the startup’s fast growth in part to its high security standards and ability to roll out its programs quickly.
“I feel like a lot of startups don’t value enough enterprise readiness. … you need proper IT and security,” Perez said. “From very early on, we emphasized that”
Because of that, Hinge Health has been able to work with government agencies, finance companies and nuclear power plants.
“U.S. employers and health plans are looking not just for outcomes, but also meaningful engagement and – critically – enterprise experience and maturity. That’s why we’ve invested in Hinge Health,” Steve Kraus, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, said in a news release. “Rarely have I seen customers more enthusiastic about a product. In all of my customer reference calls (and there were many), the praise for Hinge Health’s product and especially their ease of implementation was universal – which explains why they’ve never lost a customer.”
Hinge Health expects to expand its employee base from 220 employees to 400 with the new funding. The company also expects to triple its revenue in 2020.
Photo Credit: Christine Lui Chen, Hinge Health
