Teladoc Announces Submission of Initial IPO Paperwork

By Timothy Hay DALLAS—Teladoc Inc., an early player in the field of telemedicine, has filed preliminary paperwork to trade on public markets, the company said in a news release Wednesday.The Dallas-based company said it has submitted its draft registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The number of shares it will seek to sell, at what price and under what ticker symbol have yet to be disclosed.Founded in 2002, Teladoc was early to the game in a sector that has heated up quickly as self-insured employers and insurance companies look for new technologies to cut costs by bringing doctors and patients together outside of hospital walls.Teladoc’s customers pay a monthly, per-member fee to access the company’s platform, where hundreds of doctors respond to queries within minutes, sometimes over the phone and sometimes over videoconference, the company has said.While the company doesn’t employ full-time doctors, hundreds of practicing physicians use Teladoc to supplement their practices by fielding inquiries, the company said last year.Most inquiries from patients are resolved quickly via phone or video chat, as most are related to allergies, the flu, urinary-tract infections, rashes and other manageable conditions, the company said.The company’s platform was expected to handle 250,000 telemedicine consultations last year.Teladoc has raised more than $100 million from investors, and it has been backed by Jafco Ventures, Greenspring Associates, the Mellon Family Foundation, QuestMark Partners, FLAG Capital Management LLC, Cardinal Partners, HLM Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, New Capital Partners and Trident Capital.The company told Dow Jones VentureWire last year that its valuation had climbed to well above $300 million. Write to Timothy Hay at timothy.hay@wsj.com

RSS Business Feeds