Morrisville-based Spencer Health Solutions, which has developed a system to regularly dispense medications to at-home patients, raised $43 million from investors.
The money will be used to add operational and sales staff and to purchase new equipment. Spencer Health has about 75 employees and expects to add another 10 in the next year.
CEO and founder Tom Rhoads says the company will close on another $20 million from investors by the end of the year. He declined to discuss the company’s financials other than to say that Spencer Health revenue will grow by 300% this year.
“We have basically gotten to a point where we have built our partnerships with pharmaceutical companies, global clinical trial companies and national specialty pharmacies,” says Rhoads. “And that’s led to several contracts that have put us in a position to start scaling in a significant way.”
There are about 5,800 Spencer SmartHub machines in use in the U.S., Canada and Europe that dispense medication and provide telehealth services. The number of machines will double in the next 10 months, he says.
Spencer Health, which was founded in 2015, operates in two main markets — chronic care management, and clinical trials and rare diseases.
Of the latest raise, $10 million is in cash and the rest is coming from convertible notes “so we’re debt-free and have everything in equity,” says Rhoads. The company should be profitable soon, he says. There’s been no decision on whether to take the company public.
“When you start thinking about trying to manage someone in a home environment with a chronic illness, whether that’s a clinical trial or multiple chronic conditions, being in the home and making that an easier journey is important,” says Rhoads, a former Duke University football player. “It gives them a single, holistic platform.
“What’s happening in the market is that they have tried a lot of things that haven’t worked,” he adds. “And we’ve proven extremely successful in helping patients and keeping them on therapy for a long period of time.”
Chris Roush is executive editor of Business North Carolina. He can be reached at croush@businessnc.com.