Parsley Health Raises $10M in Series A
Parsley Health – a startup redesigning primary care by integrating the latest in medical testing, technology and nutrition research – announced the close of a $10M Series A round .
FirstMark Capital led the round, with additional investments from Amplo, Trail Mix Ventures, Combine and The Chernin Group, as well as individuals including Dr. Mark Hyman, M.D., Director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine; Nat Turner, CEO of Flatiron Health; Neil Parikh, cofounder of Casper; and Dave Gilboa, cofounder of Warby Parker.
“I started Parsley Health because America desperately needs a new model of healthcare. According to the CDC, 70% of diseases in our country are chronic and lifestyle-driven. And yet instead of addressing the root causes of health problems, medicine’s toolkit is limited to prescriptions and procedures, driving up costs while the average person gets sicker. The answer isn’t just another pill” – Dr. Berzin, CEO of Parsley Health.
Currently, 86% of annual healthcare costs in America are driven by chronic disease. Yet the average patient spends only 19 minutes with their primary care doctor annually. Due to poor compensation from health insurance, primary care has become a revolving door of expensive prescription drugs and referrals to specialists. Meanwhile, doctors work with limited patient data and dated technology, and most have never been trained to prescribe nutrition or other proven lifestyle interventions. It’s no surprise a whopping 70% of these short visits result in a prescription for a drug, contributing to the $3.3 trillion spent nationally on healthcare per year.
“At Parsley, we train our doctors to form authentic relationships, to identify the root cause of illnesses using cutting-edge data and diagnostics and to spend hours – plural – working with patients to understand their medical needs and implement necessary lifestyle changes alongside medications and conventional treatments. Our outcomes data already show this approach effectively treats and cures disease, in addition to saving patients tens of thousands of dollars in unnecessary medical spending” – Dr. Berzin.
Parsley’s board-certified doctors – based in clinics in SF, LA and NYC – are trained at top institutions including Columbia Medical School, Mount Sinai Hospital, UCLA and Weill Cornell, with certifications in internal medicine and family medicine. After joining Parsley, doctors embark on an additional clinical fellowship that includes training in evaluating thousands of biomarkers to diagnose and treat disease at its origin.
Advanced biomarker tests are uniquely prescribed based on patient symptoms, and run the gamut from evaluating inflammation, food allergies and hormone function to microbiome analysis and genetic screening. Parsley is committed to an outcomes-driven approach to healthcare and has measured clinical outcomes since the first day of its launch.
“Parsley is a 10x product. It is exponentially better than conventional primary care. It provides a better customer experience along every axis: Parsley doctors focus on ‘why’ you have a condition, not just labeling ‘what’ you have. They aim to get you well and keep you well. They do advanced testing to diagnose and monitor progress. There’s no wait time, they offer on-demand messaging and they put all your health data in a single place. I love products where once you try them, you will never go back. Parsley is that type of experience” – Partner at FirstMark Capital, Catherine Ulrich.
As part of the Parsley membership, priced at $150 per month, each patient receives a personalized health plan to guide them through lifestyle and nutrition interventions that Parsley uses in conjunction with prescription medications and referrals to specialists. Those specialists include everything a patient needs, from the best cardiologist to the best acupuncturist. Members receive five annual visits with a doctor (totaling nearly four hours) in addition to five sessions with a certified on-staff health coach, unlimited direct messaging with their health team, online access to their health data, exclusive perks and entry into a broader Parsley wellness community.
While outcomes data show Parsley’s impact on treating and curing conditions – from heart disease and diabetes to autoimmune disease and even infertility – disease prevention also remains core to the Parsley philosophy. Parsley’s on-staff data scientist monitors interventions and outcomes regularly through their proprietary Parsley Symptom Index (PSI).
“When new tech products enter the market, we expect them to be easy, efficient and effective. We should expect the same from our healthcare. I don’t know of any other medical service that can connect the dots across health, data and experience the way Parsley does with its groundbreaking design” – Vice President of Hardware Design at Google and Parsley Health advisor, Ivy Ross.
Parsley plans to use the new funding to support new hires, further build out Parsley’s virtual and digital offerings and construct clinics that will set a new standard for the medical experience.
