CourMed, a healthcare solutions concierge delivery service, announced it would be the first recipient of Microsoft’s $50 million capital fund.
CourMed, founded by Derrick Miles, will receive access to the capital in the form of zero-interest loans from Microsoft’s banking partner. Additionally, as a Microsoft partner, CourMed will offer its services as a benefit to employers who utilize Microsoft software programs.
Miles told BLACK ENTERPRISE the partnership gives CourMed credibility and will make the company and his team very wealthy.
“The partnership gives us credibility and allows us to scale not only nationwide but worldwide,” said Miles, who was profiled by BLACK ENTERPRISE for Black Business Month.
“So, the first thing that will happen within the next 30 to 90 days is our software will go into Microsoft’s marketplace, and that will allow other companies in different parts of the world to download our software and provide constant delivery of healthcare products and services like we do. We’re very excited about the partnership.”
CourMed, which officially launched in 2018, started as a pharmaceutical delivery company, working with community pharmacies to provide a concierge healthcare delivery service to patients in the comfort of their homes.
However, the coronavirus pandemic changed everything for the company as telemedicine and home healthcare services skyrocketed. CourMed became a leader in healthcare during the coronavirus pandemic as it not only began home delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine for patients but also partnered with a healthcare provider to begin delivering monoclonal antibodies to patients who had COVID.
Although CourMed is celebrating its accomplishments, Miles is still bothered by the healthcare industry’s slow adoption of technology.
“I think it’s sad because a lot of the technology was already out there, telemedicine was already in the marketplace, but it wasn’t
adopted until we had to due to the pandemic and people stayed at home,” Miles said. “So unless there was a pandemic, healthcare wasn’t innovating. So that mindset of being late to innovate stopped healthcare from getting the prices down. Uber and Lyft got the prices down from cabs and taxi services, so healthcare needs to do the same thing so we can get the prices down.”CourMed grew significantly, increasing its revenue by 300% before the pandemic began. Today, companies with a trillion-dollar market cap, including Google, have provided non-dilutive funding to accelerate CourMed’s growth in
the market further and diversify its offerings beyond just delivery to provide enterprise software and innovative concierge delivery services (prescriptions, vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, IV vitamin therapy, etc.) from healthcare providers to the patients’ home/office.“We are thrilled to be receiving this capital from Microsoft in order to grow and scale here at CourMed, especially after having the honor of being mentored by select Microsoft for Startups ambassadors and utilizing Microsoft products to scale our startup,” Miles said. “We look forward to recruiting A-players in Sales, Marketing, and IT to execute on our aggressive growth plans.”