Virtual dementia care platform Rippl scores $23M

Rippl, a company focused on providing mental health solutions to seniors with dementia and other cognitive conditions, announced it closed a $23 million Series A funding round.

Tina Hoang-To, Kin Ventures' founding general partner, led the round, with participation from the company's seed investors General Catalyst, ARCH Ventures, GV (Google Ventures), Mass General Brigham Ventures, F-Prime and 1843 Capital. JSL Health joined the round as well. 

WHAT IT DOES

The company offers a dementia-care platform that provides patients and caregivers with care-navigation and coordination services, counseling, medication management, support groups, educational content and other tools to enhance one's quality of life. 

Rippl also offers at-home monitoring to help predict a patient's care needs. 

The Seattle-based company, led by Starbucks veteran Kris Engskov, will use the funds to enhance its technology and expand its value-based care partnerships and geographic footprint.

"In addition to our value-based arrangements with Medicare Advantage plans, we are thrilled to be collaborating with major health systems like Houston Methodist, Springfield Clinic, St. Luke’s Hospital and Providence Health as part of the CMS GUIDE program to extend our reach. These partners share our deep passion for improving quality of life for people living with dementia and their caregivers," JP Sharp, chief growth officer at Rippl, said in a statement. 

MARKET SNAPSHOT

Rippl launched in 2022 with $32 million in seed funding. At the time, it planned to use the funds to hire and train clinicians, build its technology, and open a Washington state-based clinical support center to launch pilot networks in two regions, starting in Seattle.

Earlier this year, the company announced it acquired Boston-based Kinto, an AI-enabled dementia caregiver support and education platform. 

Last year, the company partnered with Mass General Brigham's McLean Hospital to enhance the training and development of a specialty workforce to care for seniors with dementia and other neurocognitive diseases. 

Other companies focused on providing digital health solutions to the dementia population include Harmonic Health, a tech-enabled dementia care platform, and Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai, which established a new digital health business targeting dementia last year.