A Brave Care provider in Portland, Ore. treating a family. (Ali Rae / Brave Care Photo)

New funding: Portland, Ore.-based pediatric health startup Brave Care raised a $10 million Series A round.

How it works: Brave Care is akin to ZOOM+Care clinics but specifically targets kids. The startup offers around-the-clock remote care through an app and via phone lines staffed with pediatric nurses. Its primary and urgent care clinics are open every day, all year from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and include on-site pharmacies. Brave Care has one mobile healthcare unit with plans to add mobile units in Texas and North Carolina.

Background: After pediatrician Dr. Corey Fish treated Darius Monsef’s kids on two occasions within a week of each other, the pair started talking and ultimately decided to create a startup with a different approach to healthcare for kids.

Monsef was one of the founders of Sightbox, a subscription service for contact lenses and eye exams that sold to Johnson & Johnson in 2017. Fish was running Pacific Crest Children’s Urgent Care, which they relaunched in 2018 as Brave Care. Fish earned his medical degree at the University of Washington and did his pediatric residency in Austin.

The leadership team includes Monsef, CEO; Fish, who is chief medical officer; Chief Technology Officer Asa Miller; and Chief Operations Officer Maryam Taheri. The company is a graduate of the Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator.

A Brave Care clinic lobby in Portland. (Ali Rae / Brave Care Photo)

COVID impacts: In response to the global pandemic, the startup began offering telehealth services and secured licenses to deliver virtual care in 14 states. It also created an online COVID symptom checker that went live early in the pandemic, and provided rapid COVID tests for kids.

What’s next: The investment will help pay for an additional clinic in Beaverton, Ore., and an expansion this year into Austin and an undisclosed location in North Carolina. The company currently has 53 employees, about 20 open positions, and expects to hire 100 employees over the next nine months. It plans to expand into additional locations in 2022. Total funding to date is $18 million.

“We have looked at markets oriented to young families, growing in population and often less access to world-class children’s hospitals. We’ve built Brave Care to deliver high quality care, affordably, so we don’t need affluent Tier 1 cities as a main focus,” Monsef said via email.

Investors: The Series A round was led by New York-based City Light with support from existing investors Founders’ Co-op, Refactor, Fifty Years and Indicator Ventures. New investors included AV8, Gaingels, Interplay and Learn Capital.

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