On-Demand Emergency Care Startup Call9 Secures $10M Series A Led by Index Ventures

Call9, a company that improves patient survival rates by guiding on-site personnel through emergency response procedures via video, has just confirmed the completion of its $10 million Series A financing round. The round was led by Index Ventures, with other participants including Ali Rowghani (a partner at Y Combinator and former executive at Pixar and Twitter), Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, and 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki.

Call9’s remote diagnostic service connects nursing home residents with emergency room physicians. It also installs systems within nursing homes to facilitate the download of software onto mobile devices for patients. When needed, nursing staff bring tablets to residents, enabling them to communicate directly with physicians through the Call9 platform.

The physicians providing services within the Call9 system are all contracted employees. Nursing homes are required to pay a membership fee to Call9 to purchase these services.

The company was founded by Celina Tenev, who holds an M.D. in Radiology from Stanford University, and Timothy Peck, a former emergency physician at Harvard Medical School. The two met while co-founding another venture, Parzival, which soon ceased operations. Tenev and Peck then joined the Y Combinator startup accelerator together last June. Through Tenev’s connections, they saw their first patient on July 15. Within three months, Call9 successfully helped 55% of its 264 users avoid emergency room visits.

According to VCBeat, Tenev stated, “We are genuinely interested in this form of healthcare known as ‘pre-hospital care,’ specifically what happens to patients from the moment they call 911 until they see a physician—a phase that averages approximately one hour. We were truly curious as to why this stage takes an hour. By conducting an in-depth study of the 911 system and following ambulances to collect comprehensive data, we came to realize, ‘This is completely illogical. Why is seeing a physician the final step in emergency care? Shouldn’t a doctor be the first person you want to see in a medical emergency?’”