- Diabetes startup Omada Health has confidentially filed its S-1 for an IPO, BI has learned.
- It's among a crop of hot startups patiently waiting for the markets to reopen for healthcare IPOs.
Rumors about diabetes startup Omada Health's public market debut have been swirling for years. Now, its IPO may finally be within reach.
Omada Health confidentially filed its S-1 this summer to go public, according to one person with knowledge of the transaction.
It's been a long time coming for Omada, which was founded in 2011 to treat diabetes and other chronic conditions with a combination of virtual coaching and remote monitoring.
Omada last raised a $192 million Series E in 2022, which boosted its valuation over $1 billion. It's raised about $450 million to date, according to PitchBook.
An Omada Health spokesperson said the company "can't comment on rumors or speculation at this time."
Omada CEO Sean Duffy has never spoken publicly about the startup's IPO plans. But Omada could be one of the select healthcare startups to test the IPO waters when the markets warm up, hopefully in 2025.
Hinge Health has hired banks including Morgan Stanley as the physical therapy startup prepares to confidentially file its S-1, BI previously reported. Hinge is aiming for an IPO in early 2025, markets willing.
BI previously reported that Omada Health and Hinge Health were among the top contenders to test the healthcare IPO waters, alongside startups like Lyra Health and Datavant.
It's been a rough couple of years for healthcare IPOs. After 20 healthcare startups went public in 2021, only one healthcare company went public the following year — Akili Interactive, which sold for $34 million this July. No healthcare startups went public in 2023.
2024's IPO market has remained rocky. Three digital health companies have gone public this year: revenue cycle management company Waystar, remote pregnancy monitoring company Nuvo, and precision medicine company Tempus AI. Both Waystar's and Tempus's stock have surged about 30% since their public market debuts, as of October 1. Nuvo, which went public in a SPAC deal in May, filed for bankruptcy in August.
Cameron Lester, global co-head of technology, media, and telecom investment banking at Jefferies, told Business Insider in August that many companies are now waiting until 2025, after the US presidential election has concluded, to consider an IPO. He said the firm expects "a strong 2025 with lots of companies getting ready to go public."
Ben Narasin, founder and general partner at Tenacity Venture Capital and an early investor in Omada Health, told BI he believes the first quarter of 2024 "will unleash the IPO beast back into the wild, and we will see a long-awaited return to liquidity, starting with the best and most compelling companies that currently clog a congested pipe of massive scale."
Omada has made plenty of progress in the IPO drought, including by notching a partnership with Amazon in January. It's also sought deals to help employers manage patients on weight-loss drugs like Ozempic.
"Probably every year for the last five years, I get asked about Omada's IPO," Duffy told BI in January. "We want to make sure that Omada continues to grow, and that we're the sort of business that can thrive independently."