Mahmee Maternal Health Platform Lands $3M from Mark Cuban, Serena Williams

Mahmee, a maternal healthcare management platform, has raised $3 million in funding, including investments from entrepreneur Mark Cuban and tennis star Serena Williams, who see potential in the digital health company’s push to optimize maternal health records and ensure the health and lives of mothers post-pregnancy.

The maternal and infant health-tech company connects the maternal health industry by using IT infrastructure to ensure physicians are connected to their patients and don’t overlook important health issues, all through a web-based application. This could potentially prevent unforeseen complications and save lives, Mahmee claims.

“This industry is lacking the IT infrastructure needed to connect these professionals from different organizations to each other and to follow and monitor patients across practices and health systems,” Melissa Hanna, CEO and co-founder of Mahmee, J.D., MBA, said in a statement. “This missing element creates gaps in care. Mahmee is the glue that connects the care ecosystem and closes the gaps.”

To improve the IT infrastructure, Mahmee captures large amounts of previously inaccessible data and provides a platform for the data to be incorporated into the care plans of new mothers.

How Mahmee Could Help Healthcare

The technology could benefit health systems, physicians and patients alike.

“Mahmee can help any health system looking to reduce complications and drive engagement with patients,” Hanna told Inside Digital Health™.

She said that Mahmee does not only provide the technology but also the “playbook” for creating maternal programs. During an implementation period, Mahmee analyzes health systems’ current maternal care operations and delivers guidance. This is not necessarily revolutionary for healthcare at large, but it is, however, in maternal care.

The company’s network already includes more than 1,000 providers and organizations, including Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, AltaMed, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the University of California, Los Angeles.

By working with private and Medicaid-focused health plans, Mahmee also measures the rising clinical risk of a patient and alerts physicians to the issue and how to carry out the proper course of care. Mahmee said it has already properly identified and made physicians aware of more than 1,000 critical care issues, with some cases resulting in life-saving intervention.

“Mahmee’s mission is to increase access to comprehensive care for all mothers and babies,” said Linda Hanna, co-founder, chief nursing officer and Melissa Hanna’s mother. “We work as an extension of the care team. In doing that, we help providers listen to mothers, better understand their needs and stay one step ahead of medical crises.”

How Mahmee Works

The personalized, HIPAA-compliant dashboard allows patients to ask questions and input data such as the baby’s weight. The main feature, however, is the “Care Feature,” which is essentially a list of user-specific directives based upon the best course of action for the mother’s recovery and the baby’s health. These directives can include joining a support group of other mothers or simply how to wash the infant.

Mahmee also enables patients to book appointments with practitioners and to communicate with the app’s own lactation consultants, registered nurses and nutritionists. Patients can join online classes and webinars.

The application differs for physicians and providers, for they have to be registered as part of the mother’s care team. Once granted access, physicians join a system to communicate and collaborate with others in the patient’s network.

Mahmee’s open line of communication solves the problem of “too many cooks in the kitchen” and allows mutual collaboration between physician, patient and provider, Melissa Hanna said.

She claims that engagement and personal interaction have resulted in a high user retention rate. She also claims that the lifetime value of the web-based application doubled when patients engaged with the interface by booking appointments or seeing their questions answered within Mahmee’s messaging system during the first 48 hours of using the app.

Why Good Maternal Care Is Important

Arlan Hamilton’s ArlanWasHere Investments led the round of funding, with support from Revolutions’ Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Cuban and Williams. They joined existing investors Cross Culture Ventures, Acumen America, The Helm, Backstage Capital, Bumble Fund, Pipeline Angels and others.

“Given the bleak data surrounding maternal death and injury rates,” Williams said in a statement, “I believe that it is absolutely critical right now to invest in solutions that help protect the lives of moms and babies.”

At a time when 700 mothers are dying from birth complications each year in the United States alone, Williams knows all too well the complications that can ensue with inadequate health records. Last year, she became the first mother to play in the Wimbledon final in 38 years. Just months earlier, during her own pregnancy, she almost died when unforeseen blood clots, information not visible in her health record, had settled in her lungs.

Cuban said he’s confident in the company’s ability to helm innovation in the space.

“This tech solution is helping usher in the future of maternity healthcare,” Cuban said in a statement.

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