In an interview with HealthLeaders, Summus CEO Julian Flannery discussed the fundraising effort and the future of telehealth in general.
Summus Global, a virtual specialist platform based in New York, announced Thursday morning that it closed a $21 million Series B funding round.
The fundraising effort was led by Sator Grove Holdings and included participation from the Outsiders Fund, Savoy Capital, Teamworthy Ventures, and existing investors.
Like many other virtual care companies, Summus experienced significant growth during the pandemic, including a sizable membership increase last year, according to a company press release.
Summus announced its financing round just over a week after Firefly Health, the virtual-first primary care, behavioral health, and specialty care service headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts, announced that it had closed a $40 million Series B funding round.
Related: Firefly Health CEO, Executive Chairman Discuss $40M Fundraising Round
In an interview with HealthLeaders, Summus CEO Julian Flannery discussed the fundraising effort and the future of telehealth in general.
Flannery said that the pandemic "radically accelerated" the adoption of virtual care and helped make the funding round possible.
He added that in comparison to Firefly, which is focused on virtual care and primary care services, Summus is centered around providing specialty care.
"Our business model is built on local expertise and our platform has been able to attract leading doctors from across the country so they can engage and consult with our members," Flannery said. "We see the next generation of virtual care being about quality, the user experience, and then the ability to drive quality through quantifiably better outcomes."
Related: Telehealth: How Asynchronous Communication Creates Provider Efficiencies
Flannery also stated that Summus' goals are to address the financial concerns of its patients, particularly out-of-pocket costs, but also bettering the physician experience as a way to improve the consumer experience.
In reference to a question about the long-term sustainability of telehealth services, especially as hospitals aim for a rebound in in-person patient volumes, Flannery said that the future of virtual care is broader than simple care delivery.
"[Virtual care opportunities] are not just appointments; it's outpatient care, there are a lot of different ways to leverage virtual mediums inside of health systems," Flannery said. "In our experience, we also deploy our platform as a SaaS platform to help leading health systems to scale their specialist expertise in a white-label fashion and we've seen a tremendous amount of interest in that."
Looking ahead, Flannery said that consumerization will continue to serve as a driving force in healthcare and shape the direction of innovation in the telehealth sector, specifically as patients become more discerning in their expectations for specialty care.
Jack O'Brien is the Content Team Lead and Finance Editor at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.