After raising a hefty $70 million in September, Practice Fusion, the makers of a popular Electronic Health Records (EHR) platform, are adding yet another round of coin to its coffers. Today’s $15 million investment is an extension to the company’s Series D raise in September, bringing the round to $85 million in total, with the company’s total funding raised to date standing just under $150 million.
The $15 million extension was led by Qualcomm Ventures and Longitude Capital, with support from returning investors, Artis Ventures, Industry Ventures and Band of Angels. Kleiner Perkins led the first part of the company’s Series D, with OrbiMed Advisors and Deerfield Management participating as well.
When asked why Practice Fusion decided to extend its already sizable Series D round, founder and CEO Ryan Howard told TechCrunch that the company, naturally, wanted to accommodate investors who didn’t make it into its initial Series D raise, which was oversubscribed.
Furthermore, Howard said that, with healthcare becoming “more and more mobile” and with many of its doctors using iPads in their practices and its patients using their smartphones to book appointments and access their medical records, adding a strategic investor like Qualcomm, a leader in mobile technology, made sense. Howard hinted that a strategic mobile investor also made sense, given some of the consumer-facing tools that Practice Fusion will be releasing early next year, which we can only assume will continue to build its presence in mobile.
As to what Practice Fusion plans to do with the $85 million? While Howard wouldn’t specify, expect the company to put some of this capital to use over the coming year in the M&A department. The chances are good that this capital will allow Practice Fusion to begin making a few strategic acquisitions — as it did with 100Plus — and to begin fueling the growth that could lead it to the public markets in the next two years.
Not only that, but the CEO says that Practice Fusion plans to both “double in size and become profitable” with its new capital.
Coming as the raise does at the end of the year, Practice Fusion also offered a quick glance at its growth over the past year, in which it surpassed 300 employees, facilitated more than 55 million patient visits across the country and launched its new patient booking and reviews portal, Patient Fusion.
In addition, the company launched the first generation of its data analytics platform, Insight, grew its number of lab partners to over 300 and launched both imaging and billing APIs. All in all, its been a big year for Practice Fusion, though it certainly hasn’t been without controversy.