The Challenge

The opioid addiction crisis has devastated millions of families and hundreds of communities across the United States. Currently, 2.1 million individuals are diagnosed with opioid use disorder, but experts say the addiction is grossly underreported and could be impacting as many as six million Americans. While widespread, the consequences of addiction are experienced more acutely in poorer regions of the country where low-income patients are often prescribed higher doses of opioids over longer periods. Not only do current care models fail to comprehensively treat all aspects that underlie addiction–including physiological dependency, behavior, and social support–but also, many of these treatments are unavailable to low-income or rural patients making it challenging for those who struggle with addiction to achieve long-term recovery.

The Innovation

Boulder Care delivers long-term, comprehensive treatment for opioid addiction virtually. Through the platform, patients receive access to a variety of treatment support, including a recovery coach, behavioral therapy, social support, medication management, drug testing and more. Boulder Care sells its services to health plans and integrated providers. Patients will then be referred to the platform by their primary care physician.

For patients without access to care, Boulder Care provides end-to-end addiction treatment. For patients with access to some treatment options, Boulder Care’s services can supplement care for a more comprehensive recovery program. At scale, Boulder Care’s mission is to establish a new standard of addiction treatment, providing dignified care that mirrors the treatment of any other chronic condition.

Why Philanthropy?

Boulder Care is pre-launch and pre-pilot. Therefore, this investment carries significant execution as well as product- and market-fit risk. After thorough due diligence, we are investing in Boulder Care based on their world-class team, innovative model to tackle a growing epidemic at scale and the opportunity to demonstrate a new standard of care. This is a risk we are confident in taking and a proof point of why philanthropy-backed risk capital is critical to tackling problems of poverty.