DANVILLE, VA – The Launch Place, a venture development organization with offices in RTP and Danville, VA, has invested $75,000 from their Pre-Seed Fund II in Virginia-based KinergyCare.

Started as a passion project by founder Gail Embt, who became the primary caregiver for her mother who was battling Alzheimer’s disease, KinergyCare says it bridges the gap between health care providers and patients by “facilitating low cost care coaching and coordination.”

The Launch Place

“Our goal is to be an extension of a practice,” said KinergyCare CEO Arthur Spivy, in a statement. “We hire within the local community to better identify with and support patients in their area. Our unique local focus includes supporting hospitals and Federally Qualified Health Centers in the same area, creating a natural synergy of addressing patient issues early enough that we can reduce emergency room visits significantly.”

How it works: By connecting with hospitals and Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC), KinergyCare identifies qualified Medicare patients and deploys Community Health Workers to assist with care coaching and coordination, which Medicare programs provide reimbursement for.

Currently, KinergyCare is serving more than 200 patients in Southwest Virginia and has hired a team of six staff from that area.

With the investment from The Launch Place, KinergyCare said it hopes to continue building their workforce by training more Community Health Workers, expand their network of health care providers and developing a pilot program in the Danville region that offers additional support services, such as additional support services for Medicaid recipients. The team hopes that their pilot program will act as a model for the rest of the Commonwealth of Virginia as KinergyCare works to expand across southern Virginia and potentially into North Carolina.

“Start-ups in the health care industry like KinergyCare have offered strong investment opportunities for The Launch Place in the past,” said President and CEO of The Launch Place, Eva Doss. “We helped our investment portfolio companies focused on health care, health tech and medical devices facilitate introductions to local and regional hospitals, as well as other investors throughout the Southeast. We are keeping our eye on KinergyCare and hope to be able to carry on investing in the future as they achieve their expansion goals.”

While KinergyCare is primarily a virtual company at this time, according to Spivy the company hopes to set up a hub office in Danville.

The Launch Place provides new and early stage business support services and pre-seed and seed investments for technology startups in Virginia and North Carolina.

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