Ria Health announced Wednesday that it raised $18 million in Series A funding.

Founded near the end 2016, the San Francisco-based virtual alcohol-use disorder (AUD) startup’s first major round of venture funding comes after already landing contracts with a bevy of leading health plan contracts.

Ria Health CEO Tom Nix told Behavioral Health Business that this is the “beginning of a long marathon” for the company. But the funding and payer contracts allow him to see his and his team’s work so far as validated.

The company will use the funding to do the following over the next five years, Nix said:

— Expand commercial teams that will sell to employer organizations and unions

— Expand its production team, which will develop new services and improve its tech

— Hire additional care providers 

London-based global private equity firm SV Health Investors LLC led the round. Boston-based BPEA Private Equity and SOSV, a New Jersey-based venture capital firm also participated in this new funding round.

The funding comes after Ria Health spent the last few years trying to foster in-network relationships with payers and pushing for value-based care models.

“Having the partnerships in place that we have are boding really well,” Nix said. “Having the narrow and deep focus as a center of excellence around alcohol use disorder is resonating with individuals that are struggling with alcohol use disorder.”

Some of Ria Health’s payer partners include Blue Cross Blue Shield entities, Anthem Inc. (NYSE: ANTM)’s Beacon Health Options, UnitedHealth Group’s Optum, Highmark Health, and Centene Corp.’s Magellan Health.

Nix attributed Ria Health’s early focus on major payers to robust data collection, patient outcomes and adding a digitally enabled peripheral device — alcohol breath test devices — to its telehealth platform.

The company operates through what could be described as a business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) model. Ria Health partners with payers and employers and works with their care coordinators to ensure Ria is a pathway for people seeking AUD treatment.

“Still, a majority of people will still ask Dr. Google what they should do and where they should go,” Nix said.

Ria Health patients get access to two forms of care — clinical care that’s provided by psychiatrists, addiction medicine doctors, psychiatric nurse practitioners; and coaching support from certified addiction counselors that are supervised by licensed clinical social workers.

The company employs about 100 people, and about 40 of them work in the care delivery segment. More than 80% are full-time employees. 

Ria Health contracts with providers, but does not yet operate, in all 50 states, Nix said.

“We don’t activate states until we have what we deem to be enough resiliency in the coverage,” Nix said, adding that the company could operate nationwide in the next six weeks.

On top of the virtual care — which focuses on personalized goals including abstinence or reduction — Ria Health’s telehealth platform is backed by medication-assisted treatment and digitally connected alcohol breath test devices.

“When we started this, we were really trying to give the patient the ability to fully understand how they were doing,” Nix said, saying that patients frequently, sometimes unintentionally, underreport their consumption. “We were surprised, to be honest with you, how receptive patients were to utilizing it. … It was inspiring to see they found it almost like a fitness tracker.”

Initial talks with commercial payers revolved around value-based care. And having very granular, objective data “more than impressed” payers, Nix said. The alcohol breath test devices provided the objectivity that patient-reported data lack.

“It’s great to use patient-reported outcomes because in the absence that’s all you have,” Nix said. “When we started using breathalyzer data and patient-reported outcomes, the combinations paint a more effective picture.”

Ria Health patient outcomes show that within 30 days, 70% of patients reduce their level of risk for alcohol dependence as defined by a four-tiered system from the World Health Organization (WHO). The four levels are very high, high, moderate and low risk for alcohol dependence. Over 12 months, more than 80% of patients reduce their WHO risk drinking level, according to the release.

Nix founded the company with his brother Robert “Bob” Nix and addiction researcher Dr. John Mendelson. Robert Nix worked for the health tech company athenahealth as a vice president and tech architect for nine years before founding Ria Health. Mendelson has studied addiction for decades.