Wildflower Health Acquires Circle Women's Health Platform to Accelerate Product Development and Expand Community Reach
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VCBeat (WeChat: vcbeat) has learned that Wildflower Health, a mobile health software company for mothers and infants previously reported on, recently announced the acquisition of Circle Women's Health Platform, a mobile health technology platform incubated by Providence St. Joseph Health (PSJH), the third-largest nonprofit health system in the United States. Following the merger, Wildflower is expected to expand its provider base and reach among grassroots institutions, accelerate product development, and provide its team with enhanced insights.
As part of the transaction, PSJH has entered into an enterprise-level commercial agreement with Wildflower. Providence Ventures also participated in Wildflower’s Series C financing round, which was led by Health Enterprise Partners, with participation from existing investors Hatteras Venture Partners and Echo Health Ventures.
Wildflower Health was founded by Leah Sparks in October 2012 and is headquartered in San Francisco, USA. At its inception, Wildflower had only $100,000 in seed funding from Rock Health.
The Series A financing round in 2013 was led by Cambia Health Solutions and KMG Capital Partners, with a total funding amount of $1.71 million. The Series B financing round in 2015 was led by Easton Capital, with Cambia Health Solutions continuing to participate as an existing investor, along with three other venture capital firms injecting funds, raising $5 million. In 2018, the Series C financing round raised $16 million, led by Health Enterprise Partners, with Providence Ventures among the participating investors.
“We are focused on family health and creating long-term value for our payers, providers, and employer clients,” said Leah Sparks, Founder and CEO of Wildflower. “The addition of Circle’s innovative technology platform and its team has significantly enhanced healthcare delivery capabilities by streamlining processes and forging smarter connections between consumers and the resources they need.”
Wildflower’s mobile-based enterprise software serves as a digital catalyst for clients’ existing clinical services, enhancing outcomes and operational efficiency while boosting engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty among women and their families. Through Wildflower, family members can manage the health needs of mothers, fathers, children, and elderly parents within a single shared application. Users gain access to decision-support tools, educational modules, care plans, and reminders for immunizations, doctor visits, and preventive health measures.
According to available information, one of the initial products offered by Wildflowers was Due Date Plus, which helped pregnant women track symptoms, monitor key milestones, and read health tips. Since then, the company has expanded the coverage of its platform.
“We did indeed start during pregnancy, but a few years ago, our data showed that 70% of pregnant users continued to use our app even after their babies were born,” Sparks said. “This really struck us as an opportunity to expand further into newborn care and pediatrics. Our platform now actually transcends age boundaries within families, allowing users to leverage the app for caring for both aging parents and children. Most of our early customers are now migrating to our more comprehensive family health segment.”
Circle was created by PSJH clinicians who sought to ensure that patients regularly receive health education materials on family and child health. The app serves as a single source of information for parents, offering resources on topics ranging from breastfeeding to adolescent engagement. Moreover, Circle not only provides content, tools, and trackers but also integrates with the healthcare system’s electronic health record (EHR).
Wildflower serves over 45 million customers and a growing number of hospitals. Circle is currently available in nearly 30 hospitals within the PSJH network, as well as in select regions of other prestigious healthcare systems such as OSF Healthcare and Sutter Health. Wildflower currently partners with Dignity Health, the fifth-largest health system in the United States, which was the company’s first enterprise-level health system customer and an early investor.
“We are rapidly building an ecosystem that enables individual users to access benefits and resources from their health plans, providers, employers, and local communities through a single app,” said Parks. “Consider the current state of healthcare and how poor the experience is for individuals trying to navigate a complex, fragmented, and disjointed system.”
For Wildflower, this acquisition further accelerates its progress in securing government projects, while speeding up the organization’s product development efforts and timeline, thereby solidifying its position as a key change agent in the mobile health sector for maternal and infant care. For PSJH, this transaction represents the culmination of a two-year innovative collaboration between its digital team and the clinical program services team for women and children.
As part of the transaction with Wildflower, bringing Circle to market is part of PSJH’s strategy to develop novel solutions for healthcare providers’ needs, scale them within PSJH, commercialize these innovations, and create value for PSJH. Circle is the second incubated solution spun out by DFJ from PSJH’s Digital Innovation Team, following XJalth, which was spun off and funded in June 2017.
“Circle has consistently helped PSJH clinicians provide reliable clinical support to our patients across the continuum of pregnancy, childbirth, and pediatrics, with plans to soon expand into women’s broader health and wellness. The collaboration between our clinical and digital teams and Circle has yielded a solution that makes life easier for our patients and enhances clinician efficiency,” said Amy Compton-Phillips, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer at PSJH. “We look forward to continuing our close partnership with the Wildflower Health team.”
Aaron Martin, Chief Digital/Innovation Officer of PSJH and Managing General Partner of Providence Ventures, will join Wildflower’s board of directors.
“We are constantly seeking new ways to engage more consumers in their own health management during the care journey, with the goal of ultimately making our community service processes healthier through sustained digital technology,” said Martin. “The combination of Wildflower Health and Circle will bring comprehensive, personalized solutions to family health and accelerate PSJH’s vision for digital engagement with every family it serves.”
About Wildflower Health
Wildflower improves household health outcomes by establishing intelligent connections between consumers and their healthcare. It simplifies healthcare processes, helping families manage the health needs of mothers, fathers, children, and elderly parents through a shared mobile application. Meanwhile, its mobile-based enterprise software serves as a digital catalyst for clients, enhancing clinical outcomes and operational efficiency while boosting engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty.
About PSJH (Providence St. Joseph Health)
PSJH is dedicated to improving the health of the communities it serves, particularly those that are underserved and vulnerable. The health system and its partners operate 51 hospitals and 829 physician clinics, offering advanced services that include supportive housing and a wide range of other health and educational services. It employs 119,000 caregivers (staff members) serving communities across seven states: Alaska, California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, and Washington.
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