It’s billed as “Apple store meets doctor’s office,” its chief executive hails from Google and its newest office opened last week in Westfield’s Century City mall instead of a medical building.
GoForward Inc. is not the typical primary care doctor.
The San Francisco-based firm, backed by $100 million in venture capital and doing business as Forward, is a concierge medicine service launched this year. The company combines traditional doc-in-a-box primary health care with digital health tools ranging from genetic tests and predictive algorithms to body sensors and mobile apps.
A slogan inside the new mall storefront urges patients to “Design your health.”
“LA has always had a strong desire for better healthcare, whether it’s a Whole Foods on every street corner or the numerous health trends it’s started,” Adrian Aoun, its cofounder and chief executive, said in an email. “But there hasn’t been a real medical science-based option that actually helps people control the future of their health in a way that has real impact on their lives. Thanks to technology, Forward is bringing LA that option and LA wants it.”
Aoun is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who sold his AI-startup Wavii to Google before launching Sidewalk Labs for Google parent Alphabet Inc. The company now employs about 40 people, including former engineers from Uber Technologies Inc., Google, Facebook Inc., and Palantir Technologies Inc.
GoForward initially received $30-million from investors in July 2016, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and has raised a total of $100 million, a company spokesman said. Major investors include Khosla Ventures of Menlo Park, and Founders Fund and First Round Capital, both of San Francisco.