Health startup Roon has raised $15 million at a pre-valuation of $65 million, BI has learned. Roon’s existing investor Sequoia will also participate in this round. Roon’s site helps consumers get expert answers to their health questions.
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Health information site Roon is raising a new round of funding, Business Insider has learned.
The startup has raised $15 million at a pre-money valuation of $65 million, according to two people familiar with the effort.
Existing investor Sequoia Capital has recommitted to the funding round, according to people familiar with the matter.
Roon aims to replace “Dr. Google” with its website and app, allowing consumers to ask health questions and get answers from experts.
The company previously raised a $7.5 million seed round in 2022. Firstmark, TMV and Sequoia Capital led the round, with participation from SV Angel, Maveron and M13.
Terms and conditions have not been finalized and are subject to change. Mr. Roan did not respond to requests for comment. Sequoia declined to comment for this story.
Roon advertises itself on its website as a “trusted guide to health.” The company partners with trained medical professionals to provide you with accessible medical information and answer specific medical questions about your health journey.
Currently, Roon’s site says it can help patients overcome fertility and family building, dementia, the neurological disease ALS, or the brain tumor glioblastoma multiforme.
According to TechCrunch, the company initially started by providing medical information about glioblastoma, sourced experts on specific conditions, and then expanded to additional topics. Roon also connects users with other people experiencing similar health conditions.
Roon CEO Vikram Bhaskaran is a former Pinterest executive who founded Roon in 2021 after struggling to find accessible information about a loved one’s medical condition. He partnered with Arun Ranganathan, a former Pinterest colleague and Roon’s CTO, and Rohan Ramakrishna, a trained neurosurgeon and Roon’s chief medical officer.
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Nowadays, expert health information is not always easy to find with a simple Google search. Patients often turn to resources like WebMD, forums like Quora, and even social media for advice about their condition, but of course they can’t trust their accuracy.
AI platforms such as Perplexity and OpenAI’s ChatGPT are also increasingly being used as resources for medical questions. However, there have been concerns regarding the reliability and accuracy of the output of these platforms.
Consensus, a search engine that helps analyze scientific papers, raised $11.5 million in a Series A led by Union Square Ventures in July to address a similar market.
Roon aims to differentiate itself by focusing on “medically vetted” information, Bhaskaran told TechCrunch in 2022.
“There’s so much medical misinformation out there…It’s crazy that patients have nowhere to go to get their questions answered,” he said.
