Heal Secures $5 Million in Seed Funding to Expand On-Demand House Call Medical Service

On June 23, Heal, a U.S.-based mobile healthcare company, secured $5 million in angel financing. The round involved nine investors: three venture firms—Slow Ventures, March Capital, and Pritzker Capital—and six individual investors: Paul Jacobs (Chairman of Qualcomm), James Lassiter, Stephen Rader, Jamie McCourt, Lionel Richie, and Mike Wortsman.

Heal, founded by Dr. Renee Dua and her husband Nick Desai, is a company that provides in-home medical services. The platform currently features three types of professionals: general practitioners, pediatricians, and primary care physicians, primarily offering basic medical diagnostic and treatment services. The company launched its mobile app in January of this year. Dr. Dua, a nephrologist, conceived the idea for Heal after spending eight hours waiting outside an emergency room while seeking care for her one-year-old child.

Renee Dua and her husband Nick Desai, and their son

Heal’s app operates similarly to Uber, allowing users to request on-demand house calls from physicians based on their geographic location. Although the service is available year-round, Heal has designated service hours from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Heal promises that a physician will arrive at the patient’s home within 60 minutes of being matched. Each Heal physician visits patients accompanied by a medical assistant and carries a medical kit equipped with cutting-edge health technologies, such as devices for measuring vital signs and high-definition video otoscopes for capturing images of the eardrum. Heal’s physician network primarily comprises professionals from renowned medical institutions, including the University of California, UCLA, Columbia University, and Stanford University.

Heal currently offers services including annual physical exams, blood tests, professional consultations, and prescription medications. New features enable patients to book appointments one day in advance.

Regarding payment, Heal charges a flat fee of $99, regardless of the patient’s age or distance. Heal will use these funds to expand to 15 service locations over the next 12 months. The service is currently available only in Los Angeles, United States. However, this $99 fee covers only the physician’s visit; costs for prescribed medications or medical examinations must be covered by the patient’s insurance or paid out-of-pocket.

“In the future, we can administer intravenous injections, or vaccinate children against influenza or smallpox,” said Dua, who is also considering adding home-based tests such as rapid strep tests and urinalysis to Heal.

Although a single visit through Heal costs $30–$40 more on average than a trip to a standard clinic—a significant sum for many families—Dua notes that investors still tend to ask why Heal’s service pricing is so low, rather than why it is so high.

Dua stated that over 30% of patients became repeat customers after consulting a doctor on Heal just once.

However, Heal is not the first startup to offer such in-home medical services: Pager, co-founded by Uber’s original team, dispatches doctors for home visits in New York; Doc on Demand provides “video consultations” for doctors and patients.

Dua is well aware of the competition she faces, but she stated, “We are quite unique, particularly in our unified service pricing and rapid physician consultations.” Dua and her husband hope to eventually expand their services across the United States. “In primary care, Americans make 2 billion doctor visits annually; we aim to transform this model.”