ABQ startup Twistle wins $16M investment
Albuquerque-based startup Twistle won a $16 million investment to grow the market for its patient-engagement system, which links healthcare teams directly with patients through automated communication.
The company, which launched in 2011, is growing fast, with 15 health systems and life-science companies, such as pharmaceutical and medical device firms, already using its system across the U.S. That includes some large, multi-state providers like AdventHealth and Providence, which together manage hundreds of hospitals and clinics in 16 states.
That market traction attracted interest from two major healthcare industry investors, including Health Enterprise Partners – which counts nearly 40 healthcare organizations nationwide as partners in its private equity funds – and the MemorialCare Innovation Fund, set up by the MemorialCare Health System to make strategic investments in companies with promising new technologies. HED, which focuses on growth equity, led the investment in Twistle.
It’s the first outside private equity received by the startup, which until now relied on self-funding to grow its business, said Twistle CEO Kulmeet Singh. The company has reached nearly $5 million in annual revenue.
“We’ve have no critical urge to raise capital, even now, given the business we’re already doing,” Singh told the Journal. “But we’re poised for growth, so we sought growth equity to finance our expansion.”
The company developed an IT platform that easily integrates with any hospital system and allows patients to choose their preferred method of communication, be it text, email, mobile messaging apps, or phone calls, Singh said. The system automatically communicates with patients outside the hospital or clinic on behalf of their care teams.
“It’s an automated conversation that asks the patient if they did this or that, collects information for providers based on patient responses, and provides information to them directly related to their specific condition,” Singh said. “That automated communication continues until the system determines that a patient has gone off track in their care. It then alerts the care team to intervene, whether it’s a call back or making a follow-up appointment.”
The goal is to be an effective monitor for the care team to take some of the burden off them, Singh said. That saves time and money and allows providers to devote more of their attention directly to medical intervention.
HEP Managing Partner Ezra Mehlman said the industry is seeking tools like Twistle’s system for “hyper-individualized,” automated communications.
The company currently employs about 40 people, nearly half in Albuquerque.