MiSalud Inc. Raised $5M for its Digital Health Platform Designed for Hispanics | Healthcare Innovation

As the U.S. population becomes more diverse, the challenges with providing quality healthcare to non-native English speakers increases. According to a story from Census.gov on Aug. 12, “The Hispanic or Latino population, which includes people of any race, was 62.1 million in 2020. The Hispanic or Latino population grew 23 percent, while the population that was not of Hispanic or Latino origin grew 4.3 percent since 2010.”

Attempting to conquer this challenge is MiSalud Inc., the Palo Alto, Calif-based company that offers personalized healthcare services to U.S. Hispanics through its mobile app and platform. The company announced in an Aug. 18 press release that it raised $5 million and is launching the beta version of their digital health platform. MiSalud means “My Health” in Spanish.

According to the release “The pandemic highlighted many longstanding problems with healthcare access in Hispanic communities. According to the CDC, Hispanics were nearly three times as likely to be hospitalized from COVID-19, and 2.3 times as likely to die from the virus. Longstanding inequalities in the healthcare system also contribute to Hispanics being 23 percent more likely to be obese, 24 percent more likely to have uncontrolled hypertension, and an astounding 50 percent more likely to die from diabetes. Hispanics are also three times more likely to be uninsured and are less likely to have a primary care physician. MiSalud aims to combat these inequalities by making culturally-sensitive medical and wellness services available in real-time, in the patient’s native language, via its mobile platform.”

Further, “MiSalud was co-founded by Dr. Devon Huff, who grew up in Oxnard, a majority Hispanic town in Southern California. Both his father and his grandfather were physicians for the community. ‘Hispanics account for 20 percent of the U.S. population, and in states like California and Texas, that number goes up to 40 percent. Many are essential workers—important members of the global food and manufacturing supply chain,’ shares Huff. ‘But unfortunately, most Hispanics don’t have Spanish-speaking physicians in their communities. Which contributes to one-third of Hispanic women and nearly half of Hispanic men not having a primary care doctor. Those rates are 60 percent higher than the U.S. average and higher than any other ethnic group.’”

Pivotal Ventures, a Melinda French Gates company, with Magnify Ventures is the largest investor in the round. Additional investors include Lowercase Capital, Rise Capital, and strategic investor, Entravision. Angel investors Alex Bitoun, Sumit Agarwal, Belsasar Lepe, and Isaac Saldana also contributed.

Finally, the release stated that “MiSalud is currently in closed beta and will launch publicly later this year.”