Amwell is set to go public, as CNBC today reported that the telehealth firm has confidentially filed its paperwork for an initial public offering.

The filing follows the company, formally named American Well Corp., raising $194 million in May amid booming demand for its service during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Founded in 2016, Amwell telemedicine offers services in the U.S. and globally that connects and enables providers, insurers, patients and innovators to deliver access to affordable, higher quality care. The company said it offers a single, comprehensive platform to support all telehealth needs from urgent to acute and post-acute care, as well as chronic care management and healthy living.

Amwell offers telehealth solutions to more than 240 health systems comprised of 2,000 hospitals and 55 health plan partners with more than 36,000 employees. As of its funding in May, the company said it had seen a 10-fold increase in consultations thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and in some places 30-fold to 40-fold.

“As we come out of COVID there is going to be a newfound understanding of how digital plays a role in the fabric of healthcare. It is a new balance of physical versus digital,” Amwell Chief Executive Officer Dr. Roy Schoenberg told MobiHealthNews in May. “With that comes a mature understanding that we are going to regularly care for our patients through telehealth. It is going to be part of the way our relationship happens.”

Despite having never gone public and being a late-stage startup, Amwell is one of the largest players in the market. Its main rival, Teladoc Health Inc. is also seeing rapid growth during the COVID-19 pandemic in both clients and its share price, the latter up 88% since the beginning of the year.

Two companies in the health-tech market that went public in July have seen mixed results. Livongo Health Inc. floated at $28 per share and peaked at $61.80 on June 3. Health Catalyst Inc. debuted at $26 per share with a closing share price of $28.18 today.

Many industries have seen an unprecedented switch to remote working during COVID-19 and that includes the provision of medical services and consulting.

In interviews with SiliconANGLE May 6, health professionals predicted that COVID-19 heralds a golden age of online health consultation. “Telehealth is about to step into the mainstream of healthcare and stay there,” said Eran Orr, founder and chief executive officer of XRHealth. “Any technology that can allow a clinician to remotely treat the patient … will be the gold standard of the industry for the next 50 years.”

Telehealth was also identified by SiliconANGLE recently as a technology COVID-19 would accelerate. “Telehealth, or the remote delivery of healthcare services, was already in line to become a $130 billion market by 2025,” SiliconANGLE’s Paul Gillin wrote. “With some online services reporting up to a 500% increase in usage during the pandemic, it appears that digital healthcare will go mainstream even faster than expected.”

Although Amwell has not confirmed its IPO filing, it’s expected to go public in September. Coming into the public offering, Amwell has raised $711 million, according to Crunchbase. Investors include Allianz X, Takeda Ventures, Chetrit Ventures, Koninklijke Philips, Investure Partners and Jefferson Health Systems.

Image: Amwell