Introducing WV’s Investment in Abridge
Today, we announced our investment in Abridge’s Series A-1 round. Wittington Ventures is proud to have led this round, with participation from fantastic and thoughtful investors including USV and Bessemer.
Abridge has developed a highly accurate product to record and summarize medical conversations in real time. The company has a belief that “healthcare is all about conversations” and we could not agree with this more. From preventative wellness checkups to pivotal care decisions in chronic disease, patients and providers come together over brief but critical interactions. Abridge enables both parties to leave these conversations poised to succeed. For providers, note-taking is dramatically streamlined — something that we sincerely hope will make a dent in the growing and devastating clinician burnout crisis. For patients, detailed summaries allow them to refer back to conversations later and action advice about their health. In a world where medical jargon and instructions can be thrown at patients very quickly, we see this as a game changer.
Current solutions on the market are difficult to scale and are anchored on wakewords that force providers to speak unnaturally. That’s why large hospital systems like UPMC have decided to partner with Abridge to provide ambient documentation solutions that work across all specialties and provide value beyond clinical documentation. For example, UPMC now uses Abridge to alleviate documentation pressure for clinicians, provide real-time structured data, and put the focus back on patients and care delivery.
WV’s investment thesis for Abridge is predicated on the following:
Abridge has a strong value proposition: As noted above, we see this tech as being highly compelling for both patients and providers. Clerical burden is the leading cause of burnout in 62% of providers, a mounting problem that poses a threat to the supply side of our healthcare system.
Abridge’s technology is poised to win: Abridge goes above and beyond transcription, summarizing medical conversations into commonly-used formats such as the SOAP note. SOAP notes organize clinicians’ findings into a standardized format, noting the Subjective observations, Objective observations, Assessment, and Plan associated with a patient’s visit. Further, its technology does this autonomously and in real-time, drastically reducing the cost of scribing and turnaround times (from days to minutes).
Abridge is targeting a large, growing market: Medical transcription and scribing is a $10B market, but the manual nature of this business means this service is priced at a premium, making it accessible to only a group of highly-paid clinicians (usually specialists). Abridge’s fully tech-enabled solution makes it much more economical, giving it the potential to reach a broader base of providers — an opportunity which WV believes can be north of $17B.
Powering and leading this exciting tech is a stellar team that we are grateful to have the opportunity to partner with. Shiv Rao, Abridge’s CEO, brings a unique combination of experiences as a trained cardiologist and former digital health investor. Besides his credentials, Shiv is the type of founder you feel good about backing: his genuine desire to make healthcare better and improve the lives of patients and clinicians shines through when he speaks about Abridge.
Congratulations to the entire Abridge team on these milestones. We look forward to being partners with you on your journey to revolutionize healthcare conversations.
