When it comes to workplace wellness programs, the old ways are dead.
That’s according to Redmond tech company ADURO, which announced a $22 million strategic investment from Boston-based Abry Partners yesterday.
“For thirty years, the industry has been managing risk with top-down, pretty antagonistic programs that target individuals with health risks and give them external incentives to essentially manage their conditions better,” ADURO CEO Dr. Darren White told Built In Seattle. “We think that both employees and forward-thinking HR leaders are tired of that approach.”
If you keep signing up members to your healthcare system but they’re all unhealthy, you can’t afford to service them all.”
ADURO, which describes itself as a “human performance company,” offers an app in which employees set personal wellness goals and monitor their progress, engage with self-guided learning programs and book screening and coaching appointments.
“We found that pretty much all health risks came from some barrier we had to remove from a person’s life before we could really make progress toward their health goals,” White said.
Those barriers generally fall into four categories, which the company calls “pillars”: health and fitness, finances, growth and development, and sustainability and sense of contribution.
ADURO helps with immediate health-related concerns — like sorting out finances or an issue in the workplace — as a means to gain users’ confidence. Once it has achieved that, it can start work on its real goal: proactively guiding users toward better long-term physical and mental health.
White said he sees his company’s mission as part of a larger shift toward a value-based healthcare system.
“Most people are following the dollars, and in a fee-for-service healthcare model, you can see how the incentives are aligned to just manage people as their issues arise,” White, pictured below, said. “But as healthcare shifts into a value-based model, we’re turning it upside down. If you keep signing up members to your healthcare system but they’re all unhealthy, you can’t afford to service them all. In that case, your incentive is to have folks stay healthy.”
ADURO says it currently works with hundreds of organizations, including the Bon Secours Mercy Health system, Levi Strauss and the Port of Seattle.
This is the first time the company has sought outside funding in the 12 years since it was incorporated. White said ADURO will use the funding to accelerate its growth in three key areas: investing in data science, integrating with electronic medical record systems and expanding its team.
“I think some acquisitions may come out of this,” White said, “because we want to accelerate certain product capabilities, and talent is tough in the Seattle tech market. Sometimes, finding an intact team can be a better way to grow.”
White said ADURO currently employs 240 people, who are split evenly between remote locations and the company’s new Redmond office, which it moved into around 12 months ago.
“We’ll be doing quite a bit of hiring,” White said, “mostly around product managers, UX and UI designers, data scientists, data architects.” The company’s legal, security, sales and marketing teams will also grow.
