Color Raises $167M to Expand US Health Infrastructure

Healthcare innovator Color has secured $167 million in Series D funding, bringing the company’s post-money valuation to $1.5 billion, as the company announced today. This new investment increases Color’s total funding to $278 million and is designed to support continued growth experienced in 2020, enabling further expansion of vital health infrastructure systems throughout the United States – specifically including efficient distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

General Catalyst spearheaded this funding round, with participation from funds managed by T. Rowe Price and Viking Global Investors, among others. Concurrent with this investment, Color is welcoming several new leaders to its executive team, including Claire Vo (previously with Optimizely) as Chief Product Officer, Emily Reuter (formerly of Uber, where she was instrumental in the company’s IPO) as Vice President of Strategy and Operations, and Ashley Chandler (previously of Stripe) as Vice President of Marketing.

“The recent crisis has clearly highlighted the existing gaps in infrastructure,” explained Color CEO and co-founder Othman Laraki in an interview. “We observed this repeatedly with lab testing, antigen testing, and now vaccine distribution. Our established model has proven effective, and we believe this is the ideal moment to significantly expand its reach. We are essentially constructing a technology-driven public health infrastructure for the nation, a departure from the traditional approach of retrofitting existing logistics with technology.”

Color experienced a record-breaking 2020, partly due to collaborations such as its partnership with San Francisco to provide testing for healthcare professionals and residents. Laraki stated that the company achieved approximately five times the revenue of the previous year. While Color is already positioned for sustainable growth based on customer revenue, its ambitious plans for 2021 and beyond prompted this additional capital injection to accelerate progress.

Laraki characterized Color’s strategy as both economically efficient for the company and as a means of substantial cost reduction for the healthcare organizations it serves. He drew a parallel to the transformation seen in the retail sector with the rise of online commerce – and the impact of a particular industry leader.

“Ultimately, you create a platform like Amazon – a technology-first system optimized for accessibility and scalability,” Laraki said. “We are witnessing a similar shift in healthcare. The current situation is accelerating the realization that this approach applies not only to the COVID crisis but also to preventative care, and will likely extend to a broad range of healthcare areas beyond emergency hospital visits.”

Color’s core objective is to reimagine healthcare delivery to “make it readily available directly in people’s daily lives,” with “minimal transaction costs,” in a manner that is “scalable, requires limited clinical resources,” according to Laraki. He emphasized that this is achievable by re-evaluating the problem without being constrained by conventional wisdom about current practices, which often lead to a “complex system” when a simpler solution would suffice.

Laraki anticipates that 2021 will present even greater challenges for the healthcare industry than 2020, acknowledging the difficulties already encountered in the initial phases of vaccine distribution. However, he remains confident in Color’s ability to address these challenges and establish a “last mile” delivery network for essential care, increasing access while ensuring quality.

“When viewed objectively, conducting COVID testing or administering vaccinations are relatively straightforward procedures,” he said. “The true difficulty lies in performing these procedures on a large scale with minimal cost to both individuals and the healthcare system. This requires a different set of tools and capabilities.”