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Mandolin Grabs $40 Million, Seeks to Speed Access to Specialty Meds
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By Brian Gormley, WSJ Pro
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Good day. A growing number of specialty medications treat cancer, Alzheimer’s and other diseases, but patients face a snag: Insurance-verification processes can force them to wait weeks for their medicine.
San Francisco startup Mandolin aims to shorten the wait. It has raised $40 million in seed and Series A financing to help healthcare providers verify insurance coverage faster so patients get treated sooner.
As specialty medicines are higher-cost treatments mostly administered in healthcare settings, healthcare providers must verify that a patient’s insurance will cover the prescribed medicine before administering it. If they don’t, the healthcare providers could be stuck with the bill, said Will Yin, chief executive of Mandolin, which he co-founded last year with Chief Operating Officer Rohit Rustagi.
Healthcare providers’ staff check if patients meet medical criteria for the medicine and if their insurance covers it. The process typically takes 30 days from the moment a prescription is received to scheduling the patient for treatment, Yin said. Through artificial intelligence, Mandolin says it can cut the review time to three days on average. Much of the three-day period is spent waiting for the insurer to respond, Yin said.
Read the full story here.
And now on to the news...
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Doug Evans outside his home in Downingtown, Pa. PHOTO: MICHELLE GUSTAFSON FOR WSJ
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Entrepreneur's triumph. Doug Evans’s career soared in June 2012 when his company, Kensey Nash, was sold for $360 million. But his personal life had taken a tragic turn.
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About two months before the sale, his son Cameron, an eighth-grader who had developed cancer, went on mechanical ventilation. It kept him alive, but he struggled to wean himself off breathing support. He died in May 2012, about three weeks after separating from the machine.
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The experience propelled Evans to his current role as chief executive of Vancouver-based Lungpacer Medical, whose medical device received Food and Drug Administration approval in December and helps ventilated patients regain the ability to breathe independently.
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Lungpacer, which operates from Evans’s base in Exton, Pa., recently increased its total venture funding to $157.8 million and is preparing to launch the treatment later this year. Evans is a notable example of an entrepreneur who steered a startup through the long process of developing and winning approval for a novel medical device.
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1.14 Million+
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The number of abortions in the U.S. in 2024, compared with around 1.06 million in 2023, according to a report by #WeCount, an abortion-data project sponsored by the Society of Family Planning, which supports abortion rights.
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Abortions Accessed Through Telemedicine Are Growing
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The number of abortions in the U.S. accessed through telemedicine is growing. So are the challenges to this mechanism that has allowed patients in states with near-total abortion bans to acquire the abortion pill, The Wall Street Journal reports. Abortions are on the rise in the U.S. despite more than a dozen states enforcing near-total bans on the procedure, according to a report released Monday by #WeCount, an abortion-data project sponsored by the Society of Family Planning, which supports abortion rights. One in four abortions in the U.S. were provided using telehealth at the end of 2024, compared with just 7% at the end
of 2022, the report said.
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Prediction Market Kalshi Hits $2 Billion Valuation in Funding Round
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Kalshi, a startup prediction market that became a popular way to bet on the November election, said Wednesday that it had been valued at $2 billion in a new funding round, a vote of confidence in its business of facilitating wagers on future events, WSJ reports. New York-based Kalshi said it had raised $185 million from investors led by Paradigm, a venture-capital firm best known for its crypto investments. Silicon Valley VC giant Sequoia Capital, crypto investor Multicoin Capital and Citadel Securities CEO Peng Zhao also took part in the funding
round, with Zhao investing in his personal capacity.
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Funds
Wisdom Ventures, an early-stage investor focused on enhancing human potential, wellbeing and emotional resilience, held the first $16 million close of its second fund. The firm raised $10 million for its inaugural fund.
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ForSight Robotics, an Israel-based ophthalmic robotic surgery startup, scored a $125 million Series B round led by Eclipse.
Neuron23, a South San Francisco, Calif.-based startup developing precision medicines for genetically defined neurological and immunological diseases, completed a $96.5 million Series D round from investors including SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and others.
Arine, a San Francisco-based medication optimization platform, raised $30 million in Series C funding led by Town Hall Ventures.
NPHub, a startup matching nurse practitioner students and professionals with clinical rotation and job placements, picked up a $20 million growth-equity investment from Edison Partners.
SuperDial, a San Francisco-based voice AI platform that automates administrative phone calls for healthcare billing and provider organizations, secured a $15 million Series A round led by SignalFire. The investment included $3 million in debt.
Elfie, a New York-based health monitoring app, closed a $12 million Series A round led by White Star Capital.
Handspring, a New York-based virtual mental health provider focusing on children and young adults, landed $12 million in Series A funding led by Cobalt Ventures.
Empo Health, a San Bruno, Calif.-based startup offering an at-home monitoring system for diabetic foot ulcer management, collected a $7 million investment. Story Ventures led the funding, which included participation from VTC Ventures.
Insight Health, an Austin, Texas-based startup using AI agents to automate routine clinical tasks, launched from stealth with $4.6 million in funding led by Kindred Ventures.
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Novo Nordisk is trying to develop new obesity treatments as competition has dented sales in the key U.S. market. PHOTO: MADS CLAUS RASMUSSEN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
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