Sami Inkinen, Virta Health, on reversing type 2 diabetes at scale

Digital Health Forward

In this episode, we meet Sami Inkinen, Co-Founder and CEO of Virta Health. Virta is an online specialty medical clinic that helps people reverse type 2 diabetes & other chronic conditions safely and sustainably, without the risks, costs, or side effects of medications or surgery. Virta’s innovations in nutritional biochemistry, data science and digital tools combined with their clinical expertise are shifting the diabetes treatment paradigm from management to reversal.

Virta has experienced a growth rate of nearly 200% year over year, and now works with over 100 of the largest health plans, employers, and government organizations and treats patients in all 50 states. Virta recently announced a $133M Series E round, led by Tiger Global. The Series E financing follows a recent $65 million raise in December of 2020, nearly doubling the company’s valuation in just 5 months to $2 billion.

Previously, Sami was the co-founder of the leading online real estate marketplace Trulia, serving as its COO and president and board member until its IPO and eventual sale to Zillow Group. He also worked on Microsoft’s strategy team for MS Office, and as a consultant for McKinsey & Company within the software, telecommunications, and government sectors. As a venture partner at Obvious Ventures, Inkinen also invests in and advises healthcare IT companies. Sami holds a Master of Science in engineering physics from the Helsinki University of Technology and a MBA from Stanford University.

In this episode, Sami and I chat about:

• How Sami’s personal connection to diabetes and passion to advance health on a global scale led to the founding of Virta Health
• Why there has been no improvement in population-level outcomes for diabetes patients despite trillions of dollars spent over the past decade
• Virta’s approach to reversing type 2 diabetes and other metabolic diseases, leading to gross savings of $5,000/patient per year and sustained improvements in patient outcomes
• The required shift in telemedicine from episodic care to continuous care in order to achieve outcomes that were previously not possible
• Sami’s learnings from his journey as a serial entrepreneur and advice to others hoping to make an impact in the healthcare industry