Cancer care provider Daymark Health has come out of the gates with a $11.5 million seed funding round. The company has integrated palliative care into its service model.

Investment firms Maverick Ventures and Yosemite led the round with participation from Oncology Ventures. Daymark launched early this year with a payer contract in the Northeast to care for more than 2,500 patients. The cancer care organization provides interdisciplinary care in the home, as well as telehealth services.

Palliative care is integral to Daymark’s care model, according to Medical Director Dr. Angela Taber. Taber is board-certified in palliative care, among other specialties.

“This model is actually early palliative care for all patients. We’re doing exquisite symptom management with patients. We actually have a symptom management platform that patients get twice a week, and it’s super user-friendly,” Taber told Palliative Care News. “The other is just education about what patients’ understand about their illnesses and their goals. Our whole team is versed in serious illness conversations and advanced care planning. So we’re continuously having those conversations with patients.”

Daymark is the brainchild of CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Justin Bekelman, an oncologist and former leader of Penn Medicine’s Center for Cancer Care Innovation at the Abramson Cancer Center. The company came up through the startup incubator Healthcare Foundry and has now emerged from the seed round, according to Taber.

Daymark plans to use the seed dollars to expand its workforce, build scale and secure additional payer contracts. The company seeks payers with value-based payment models.

Cancers are among the most frequently occurring diagnoses among palliative care patients. More than 2 million new cancer diagnoses are expected to occur in 2025, as well as 618,000 deaths, according to the American Cancer Society.

“Despite the advances in cancer treatment made over the past 50 years, patients still face a fragmented health system that gets in the way of comprehensive, personalized cancer care,” Bekelman said in a statement. “We are delighted to launch our care platform to patients across the country and set a new standard of cancer care, one that will redefine what’s possible in oncology.”