In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of med-spas, weight-loss clinics, and concierge practices where patients pay a membership fee for immediate, often same-day access to physicians. However, despite patients paying for these services out-of-pocket, providers frequently depend on software designed for traditional, insurance-reliant care.

VITL, a startup founded 18 months ago, asserts that it is addressing one of the major technological challenges in the sector by developing an e-prescribing platform—a digital solution for managing and sending prescriptions—that is customized for cash-pay medical practices.

On Wednesday, VITL disclosed a $7.5 million Series A funding round spearheaded by SignalFire.

Founder and CEO Charlie Jordan established the Nashville-based firm after recognizing the significant amount of time medical providers devote to managing prescriptions for treatments not reimbursed by insurance.

Many providers continue to use faxes or phone calls to send prescriptions to compounding pharmacies, which create custom medications on demand, often without knowledge of the final cost to the patient or the timeframe for fulfilling the order. VITL’s platform addresses this issue by linking clinics to a nationwide network of compounding pharmacies, providing real-time price comparisons and order tracking similar to Amazon’s.

“We reduce the prescription processing time from several minutes to just a few seconds,” Jordan told TechCrunch.

For clinics that place numerous orders daily, this time savings accumulates.

VITL estimates that its technology can save clients up to two complete workdays each month by automating a process that is otherwise tedious and unclear.

Cash-pay providers are evidently recognizing the benefits of VITL’s platform. Just over a year after its establishment, the company reports having onboarded more than 630 clinics and generating eight figures in annualized recurring revenue (ARR), indicating the company is on track to earn at least $10 million annually.

Nonetheless, 630 clients represent only a small portion of a market that encompasses tens of thousands of clinics throughout the U.S. With the rising popularity of GLP-1s—the class of drugs that includes Ozempic and Wegovy—along with peptides and aesthetic procedures such as Botox becoming more mainstream, the number of cash-pay healthcare businesses is anticipated to increase.

VITL never formally approached SignalFire, yet the rapid growth of the startup captured its interest. This interest resulted in a fresh $7.5 million Series A investment led by the venture firm, known for leveraging data and AI to pinpoint emerging companies.

VITL partially competes with Surescripts, a pioneer in e-prescribing within the industry, and with boutique clinic platforms like Jane Software, which integrate prescription functionalities into their broader electronic health record (EHR) offerings. What distinguishes VITL from these rivals, it claims, is its exclusive focus on the workflow needs of the cash-pay medical sector.