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Houston palliative care startup raises $3.5 million in seed funding to expand nationally

Tatiana Fofanova, co-founder and CEO of Koda, closed recent funding for the digital health startup. Image via LinkedIn

Houston-based Koda Health announced this month that it raised $3.5 million in its latest seed round.

The round was led by Austin-based Ecliptic Capital, which focuses on emergent and early-stage investments. Sigmas Capital, Headwater Ventures, CRCM, and a number of angel investors also participated in the round.

The funding will be used to help the digital advanced care planning company double the size of its team in the next six months.

"Koda Health helps vulnerable people navigate and communicate difficult decisions about their health care journey. So, when hiring, we look for empathetic people who are phenomenal communicators," Tatiana Fofanova, Koda co-founder and CEO, says in a statement.

The Koda team will also use the funds to expand its operations to all 50 states. According to the statement, the team plans to focus on low-resource communities and operating in different languages. When Fofanova spoke with Innovation Map in September, the platform was being used by health care systems in Houston, Texas, and Virginia.

Koda Health was born out of the TMC's Biodesign Fellowship and launched by Fofanova, Dr. Desh Mohan, and Katelin Cherry in March of 2020. The platform uses AI to help patients create advanced medical care directives and documents, such as a living will, through its proprietary machine learning approach.

The pandemic helped show the founders the demand for an accessible and conversational way to help underserved communities prepare for end of life care. According to the team, what historically has been a time consuming and expensive process, through Koda Health, takes an average of 17 minutes and is completely free of charge to the end user. It is also projected to save health care systems roughly $9,500 per patient per year.

"Most Medicare beneficiaries can't afford traditional approaches to planning for future care, like estate attorneys and direct to consumer solutions. But these are conversations and legal documents that are fundamental to navigating healthcare," Fofanova continued in the statement. "Koda bridges the clinical and legal divide to make advance care planning easily accessible to everyone."

The company was awarded a prestigious Phase I grant of $256,000 from the National Science Foundation in 2021, which was used to test the platform against phone conversations with 900 patients.

It was also named the inaugural winner of the Henry Ford Health System’s Digital Inclusion Challenge for "its potential to increase equity of access to advance care planning" in October 2021.

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Guess what, Houston innovators. Tickets to this year's Houston Innovation Awards are on sale now. Graphic via InnovationMap

You can now buy tickets to the 2023 Houston Innovation Awards on November 8 — but the deadline to nominate deserving individuals and companies for the prestigious awards is just a few days away.

Tickets are available online for the awards event taking place at Silver Street Studios, and InnovationMap has a few options to choose from. Individual tickets are on sale for $80, with a special founder price of $40 available. This year, individual tickets will have seating at a first come, first served basis, but attendees are also able to opt into a reserved table of 10 for $1,000. Sponsors, judges, and finalists and their guests will receive complimentary tickets.

The nomination period for the annual awards is coming to a close next week on Tuesday, September 19. Click here to read about this year's awards categories.The process includes submitting nominations on behalf of yourself or others, and next week, nominees will be sent an application that will be due October 4. A panel of judges will review the applications and finalists will be announced and notified ahead of the event.

If you are interested in joining our partners, which include The Ion, Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, and more, in sponsoring this event, please reach out to misti@gowmedia.com.

Secure your Houston Innovation Awards tickets now.

Submit a nomination before it's too late!

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