Revenue-based financing as a steppingstone to VC

Doctor.com is a New York-based healthcare marketing automation company committed to helping healthcare organizations deliver a better customer experience at every step of the digital patient journey. Acquired by Press Ganey in 2020, their SaaS platform combines listings management, reputation management, online scheduling, and HIPAA-compliant video conferencing. The result is an all-in-one marketing solution trusted by 200+ leading hospitals and 30,000+ private practices.

Here's how they were able to accelerate their growth ahead of two venture equity rounds with the help of RAC’s non-dilutive funding.

Teeing up for a Series A

When RAC first met the team at Doctor.com in 2016, they had just started to think about raising a Series A. They had spent the last three years proving out an early version of their platform, hyper-focused on capital-efficient growth, and were now ready to invest in scaling their business.

At the same time, we heard from our conversations with the team that the timing wasn’t quite right. If they could just extend their runway for another six months, they’d be able to invest in a few key initiatives that could make their revenue and growth more attractive to equity investors.

RAC was able to help them do just that by providing an initial round of $400,000 in non-dilutive, revenue-based financing. They used this funding to invest in sales, marketing, and customer success, and were able to improve user retention while accelerating their revenue growth. These improvements, in turn, helped Doctor.com further demonstrate positive metrics and growth to secure a $5M Series A, at a significant step-up in valuation compared to where they would have raised prior to RAC’s investment.

Returning for a second round

After another two years of growth, the Doctor.com team found themselves in a familiar position. They had their eyes set on a larger growth equity round, but once again the team felt they had opportunities that could improve their position when raising expensive equity that they needed more capital to fully flush out.

In 2019, RAC was able to extend a second revenue-based financing round of $2.5M. This capital enabled Doctor.com to focus on hitting a series of strategic markers that they had identified as critical to their long-term growth. These included accelerating work on a new enterprise product aimed at larger medical groups and expanding into the pharmaceuticals industry – two milestones that would expand their market potential, and therefore increase their company value.

These new proof points positioned the company to close a $10.2M equity round later that year, at another meaningful step-up in valuation.

The company has since been acquired by Press Ganey, and the Doctor.com platform now counts over 30,000 practices among its customers.

“We were able to marry the use of expensive equity financing for long term initiatives with the strategic use of non-dilutive revenue-based financing to target specific revenue growth opportunities. This provided us at Doctor.com with another tool to effectively optimize our valuation between equity rounds and maintain more of our ownership at exit.”

— Gary Millin, Chairman and Co-Founder, Doctor.com

Funding the proof points

Doctor.com’s use case is one we see often: using revenue-based financing to hit key milestones ahead of, or in between, a future equity round.

At RAC, we’re big believers in raising capital at the right time–once a company has hit the proof points needed for a positive valuation, and once they’ve established scalable go-to-market strategy that can enable them to deploy the new capital and meet the growth expectations that come with VC.

Our revenue-based financing model can help companies to invest in growth ahead of a larger round. This means they can focus on hitting those proof points and scalability without diluting their equity or triggering a valuation event before they are ready.

But just as important as the capital is the notion of a long-term partner. We generally invest in only a small number of companies each year, which allows us to provide hands-on support and guidance through each stage of the journey. Our portfolio companies have access to a community of mentors, including our seasoned growth advisors and strategic advisory board, as well as the resources, tools, and relationships that come with being a partner with  The Riverside Company.

Case study should not be relied upon for investment decision making and should not be considered an offer or solicitation of securities or investment services. For informational purposes only and intended for General Partners or Management teams considering partnering with The Riverside Company. Portfolio company selected based on non-performance criteria