Growing up, Travis Rush lived in Southern Oregon’s little beach town of Gold Beach. The sign announcing the town’s population was quite proud: 1,576 people lived there, which meant that there weren’t many healthcare resources available. It was more than an hour away to the closest medical lab.
Reperio Health, a Portland, Oregon-based firm that offers in-home health tests and is essentially offering basic lab services to individuals in both major metropolises and tiny towns like Gold Beach, has Rush as its CEO and co-founder.
Recently, Reperio raised $14 million in fresh capital to support its expansion and service offerings.
The firm mail-order kits that contain blood pressure and heart rate tests, a body mass index scale and tape measure, and blood test devices that provide real-time results for cholesterol, triglycerides, lipids, and glucose levels.
Users complete the tests using an app, and via a Bluetooth connection, the findings are posted straight from the devices.
After that, users ship the kit back. To be used again, the gadgets are sanitized.
“We have people from 18-years old all the way up to 80-years old that have done screenings with our kits because we’ve made it super easy for them to do,” according to Rush.
Reperio first catered to consumers as clients, but it soon changed its emphasis to businesses looking to enhance staff wellbeing. The business also collaborates with hospital networks, offering a service for patients who lack access to a lab or find it difficult to visit a facility, as well as life insurance companies. Additionally, the business is in communication with the Medicaid client support systems.
According to Rush, hundreds of kits have been delivered across the country, and over 90% of the recipients are finishing the exams.
Consumers must pay $129 for a single screening; however, under agreement with employers, healthcare providers, and other parties, the cost is reduced. The cost per use may decrease to $75 based on volume.
In an effort to expedite testing, Reperio has partnered with Uber to provide a kit to a customer’s home in less than an hour after they place an order. The kits’ distribution centers will be found in major cities. Customers in more rural areas can still receive the kits through mail.
In order to facilitate follow-up steps, Reperio is also developing a service that will include a consultation with a nurse practitioner immediately following the test. Artificial intelligence will be used in the visits to evaluate the test results and make recommendations for possible treatment strategies for the doctors. Rush stated that removing as many barriers to receiving care as feasible is the aim.
To now, the company has raised $20 million, and in order to further this larger goal, it hopes to raise at least $10 million more. In order to eventually increase the number of tests offered, it is also in communication with producers of additional biometric devices. Reperio employs 24 people.
In 2020, Rush and Matt Wallington, his co-founder and chief technology officer, launched the business. At Sightbox, a business that Rush founded in 2015 and provides a subscription plan for eye tests, contact lens fittings, and supplies, the two collaborated. The startup was purchased by Johnson & Johnson in 2017 for an unknown amount.
The most recent funding comes from Portland Seed Fund and Rogue Venture Partners in Oregon, Liquid 2 Ventures in San Francisco, and Caduceus Capital Partners in Nashville, who were investors in the company’s 2021 seed round. Within the round were angel investors as well.
Tasso, a Seattle-based business that provides blood tests for individuals doing clinical trials, Everlywell, Vida Health, and other at-home health testing companies are competitors in this market.