CardioOne, a care delivery enablement platform for independent cardiology practices, has secured nearly $8 million in funding and is expanding into new markets through three new partnerships, the startup announced Monday.

Austin, Texas-based CardioOne was built at Redesign Health, a healthcare innovation company. Rather than acquire independent cardiology practices, the startup partners with these practices to help them transition to value-based care through technology and administrative support. Specifically, the startup’s services include staff management like payroll assistance, cardiology tools like remote patient monitoring and payer contract support. It also has a technology platform that provides an electronic health record system and a patient portal, among other features.

“We specifically focus on independent cardiologists, and we like to highlight that because there are not a lot of independent cardiologists left out there and we really want to see them be successful,” said Dr. Jasen Gundersen, MD, CEO and co-founder of CardioOne, in an interview. “We bring in a full suite of services to support them in everything but being the actual doctor.”

CardioOne’s nearly $8 million in seed funding was secured by Redesign Health. With the financing, Gundersen said the startup plans to focus on three key areas: building out its technology platform, providing people support to the practices it works with and growing its reach.

The company is already growing after securing three new cardiology practice partnerships in New Jersey, Florida and Pennsylvania. These partners are Cardiac Associates of North Jersey, Twin Hearts LLC and Corrieius Cardiology. CardioOne already has two other partnerships in Texas and Maryland with Samuel Family Cardiology and Chesapeake Cardiac Care. In total, these five partnerships represent 17 clinicians on CardioOne’s platform, Gundersen said. CardioOne makes revenue through these partnerships by charging a fee to its partner practices for its services.

The news comes at a time when physicians are bogged down with administrative tasks and dealing with burnout. Independent clinical practices are often getting bought out while they’re trying to manage these issues. For Cardiac Associates of North Jersey, working with CardioOne has helped the company stay independent, said Dr. John H. Lee, MD, FACC, physician of Cardiac Associates of North Jersey.

“Our independence and clinical autonomy has allowed our practice to provide more personalized care to our patients, but in a consolidating market … the resources and technology investments required to run a practice group today make staying independent more difficult than ever before,” Lee said in a statement. “CardioOne is a true collaborator, serving as an extension of our operations and allowing us to focus on doing what we love — caring for patients.”

Ultimately, CardioOne aims to “continue to advance the role and the success of the independent cardiologists that are out there, helping them continue to drive the best outcomes for their patients,” Gundersen said.

Other companies supporting the transition to value-based care include Aledade and Pearl Health, though these companies focus on primary care.

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