Thyme Care secures $95M to expand cancer care navigation to new markets, accelerate partnerships

Thyme Care, a value-based cancer care navigation startup, pocketed $95 million in fresh funding to fuel its growth into new markets and accelerate partnerships with oncology and primary care practices and health plans.

Founded in 2020, the startup aims to guide patients through every phase of the “cancer journey,” from the peri-diagnostic period, when they learn that they may have cancer, to the post-diagnostic period. The company partners with health plans, employers and risk-bearing providers to help bring down the cost of cancer care while also improving patients' health, according to executives.

The startup assumes two-sided financial risk to align payment incentives with care quality to improve health outcomes and reduce total cost of care. 

The company combines 24/7 specialized cancer care navigation services, technology and data insights and oncologist-led therapeutic interventions. Thyme Care developed a tech-enabled care team that integrates with more than 800 oncologists as part of its Thyme Care Oncology Partners for a hybrid collaborative care model, according to the company.

Thyme Care currently manages 10,000 patients and that number is expected to triple in 2025, president and chief operating officer Brad Diephuis told Fierce Healthcare. The company currently serves patients in 31 states.

"This funding is going to support our ability to drive continued growth," he said in an interview. "We are continuing to build out the infrastructure to replicate the success we've had so far in our in our existing markets to expand into new markets and with larger and larger partnerships."

The company says it's actively managing more than a half-billion dollars in medical spend across its risk-based contracts and is on pace to more than triple that number within the next year. And, the company has more than doubled its oncology partnerships over the past six months, with active plans to expand across the country through additional contracts with health plans, employers and risk-bearing primary care groups. 

The latest capital raise includes $55 million in equity funding backed by existing investors CVS Health Ventures, Town Hall Ventures, a16z Bio + Health, AlleyCorp, Echo Health Ventures, Frist Cressey Ventures and Foresite Capital along with new investor Concord Health Partners. Banc of California will provide an additional $40 million in debt financing.

Thyme Care, a 2024 Fierce 15 company, has raised $178 million to date, including $60 million in series B funding last August. The company did not disclose its current valuation.

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