LOS ANGELES, July 15, 2019- Mahmee, a data-driven maternal and infant health tech company building the missing digital infrastructure to connect the maternal health industry and prevent critical gaps in care, announced $3M investment from Mark Cuban, Serena Williams (through Serena Ventures), and others. The round is led by Arlan Hamilton’s ArlanWasHere Investments, with support from Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund. They join previous investors Cross Culture Ventures, Acumen America, The Helm, Backstage Capital, Bumble Fund, Pipeline Angels, and others.
Moms and babies are falling through the cracks of a fragmented health care industry. This is one of the reasons why the U.S has become one of the most dangerous places in the developed world to give birth, with 700 mothers dying from birth complications, and 50,000 becoming severely injured each year. According to the Center for Disease Control, for every 5 mothers dying in the United States from pregnancy and childbirth, 3 could have been saved.
Mahmee links mom and baby’s health history and data, proactively engages, checks on and monitors patients through “maternity coaches” and escalates concerns to doctors so that mom and baby’s care plan stays up to date and critical red flags aren’t missed. It does this through a HIPAA-secure, online dashboard available to new and expecting parents and their medical providers.
The new funding round will be used to grow Mahmee’s team of leading engineers, clinicians and sales staff who combine health industry know-how, proprietary technology, and data-driven clinical workflows to support the company’s current and forthcoming partnerships with billion-dollar health systems across the country.
“In the maternity healthcare process, on the surface there are generally three or four people involved: the mother, the baby, and each of their physicians. What we don’t see are the many other people helping them: nurses, lactation consultants, midwives, nutritionists, therapists, doulas, home health aids, social workers, and more,” said Melissa Hanna, CEO and Co-Founder of Mahmee. “And this industry is lacking the IT infrastructure needed to connect these professionals from different organizations to each other, and to follow and monitor patients across practices and health systems. This missing element creates gaps in care. Mahmee is the glue that connects the care ecosystem and closes the gaps.”
Mahmee’s co-founders are CTO Sunny Walia, and Chief Nursing Officer Linda Hanna, a Registered Nurse in Obstetrics, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, and the veteran health care expert who pioneered the world-class maternity and lactation programs at Kaiser Permanente and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
“Mahmee’s mission is to increase access to comprehensive care for all mothers and babies,” said Linda Hanna. “We work as an extension of the care team. In doing that, we help providers listen to mothers, better understand their needs, and stay one step ahead of medical crises.”
Mahmee has over 1,000 providers and organizations in its network, including Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, AltaMed, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, UCLA, and more. The proprietary platform has identified and escalated over 1,000 critical care issues, including sepsis, postpartum psychosis, and postnatal hemorrhaging. In each case, Mahmee’s care management team verifies rising clinical risk, escalates the issue to physicians’ attention, and works with providers to facilitate a course of care; in some cases, a life-saving intervention. Mahmee works with both private and Medicaid-focused health plans.
“My investment reflects my confidence in the strength of this team, and the value of their mission: to fill a major gap in the existing health care system that very few others are tackling,” said Mark Cuban. “This tech solution is helping usher in the future of maternity health care.”
“It is my honor to serve as Mahmee’s lead investor in their Series Seed. Along with Mark Cuban, Serena Williams, Revolution Ventures’ Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, and other key investors, we feel Melissa, Sunny and the Mahmee team are primed to continue the groundbreaking work they’re doing in the femtech space in a robust and profitable way,” said Arlan Hamilton. “I’m consistently in awe of the talent and prowess from the management team, and excited by the sheer vastness of the market opportunity. This is truly one of those cases where by doing good (in some cases saving lives), the team can do well.”
“I am incredibly excited to invest and partner with Mahmee, a company that personifies my firm’s investment philosophy,” said Serena Williams, founder and CEO of Serena Ventures. “Given the bleak data surrounding maternal death and injury rates, I believe that it is absolutely critical right now to invest in solutions that help protect the lives of moms and babies. Mahmee’s data-driven approach is the right solution to one of the most significant problems in the system: that of fragmented care.”
“There is a massive unmet opportunity to improve maternal and infant outcomes by leveraging both personalized care and tech infrastructure at scale. The Mahmee team brings deep clinical and industry expertise and are uniquely positioned to be the critical change the healthcare industry needs,” said Mary Grove, Partner at Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund.
“We’re proud to support Mahmee’s important mission and look forward to helping the team expand to more markets and revolutionize maternal healthcare.”