FELIX LAUNCHES DIGITAL HEALTH PLATFORM FOLLOWING $750,000 SEED ROUND

Via Betakit

Felix Health Inc., a Toronto-based healthtech offering access to treatments for common lifestyle health issues, has launched a new digital healthcare platform, shortly after closing a $750,000 round of Seed financing in March.

This round will help Felix add key new hires, enhance its platform, and expand its services as it gears up for a Series A.

The round was led by Grassfed Ventures, a Toronto-based venture capital group focused on the cannabis, life sciences, and eSports industries. The round also included a few select strategic angel investors. Kyle Zien, Felix CEO and co-founder, told BetaKit the company is tracking towards a Series A in the second half of the 2019 fiscal year. This round, he said will help Felix add key new hires, enhance its offering, expand its services across Canada.

“We want to empower Canadians to improve their quality of life on their own terms,” said Zien. “By making it easier for people to get diagnoses and prescriptions, we’re removing the obstacles that prevent people from seeking care in the first place, whether that’s feelings of embarrassment or even just the hassle of clinic wait times and pharmacy pick-ups.”

Felix, founded in January, said its new digital health platform does not require appointments and does not rely exclusively on phone or video calls with a doctor. Instead, Felix users can request a diagnosis on the company’s website by sharing their medical history and symptoms in an online quiz. A licenced Canadian doctor will then review the information confidentially, and can also chat directly with the patient through a secure messaging platform. The doctor will issue a prescription, which is then filled and shipped by an accredited pharmacy. Patients can reportedly expect a “discreetly packaged” shipment within two days, including the option for recurring delivery.

Users can currently seek treatment from Felix for common healthcare issues like birth control, hair loss, acne, and the company is expecting to soon expand into aging, wrinkles, cold sores, herpes, HIV prevention, HSDD, and smoking cessation.

The digital health scene in Canada has boomed this year, with healthtech startups left and right launching their own virtual care offerings. In the spring, Maple and Dot Health partnered to launch a joint digital health platform, around the same time VirtualMED announced it would bring artificial intelligence to its virtual care product.

The Canadian Medical Association, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and the College of Family Physicians of Canada, also announced a task force to examine virtual care technology and how it can improve access and quality of care for patients across the country.