Startups, Patient Engagement

Insurance navigator for freelancers and self-employed closes $23.5M Series B round

F-Prime Capital led the latest funding round for Stride Health with existing investors Venrock and New Enterprise Associates participating alongside new investor Portag3 Ventures.

 

Stride Health, a digital health business that identified a gap in the insurance benefits market for the self-employed and part time workforce, has closed a Series B round to grow the benefits network for these employees.

F-Prime Capital led the round with existing investors Venrock and New Enterprise Associates also participating alongside new investor Portag3 Ventures. The new capital will support the expansion of Stride Health’s benefits offerings.

The company also plans to increase staff from 50 to increase the reach of the business to help more self-employed workers by boosting its marketing, product development, design and engineering teams.

Stride Health updated its user interface on its mobile app earlier this year

In response to emailed questions, Stride Health CEO Noah Lang seemed to acknowledge that between the Senate GOP’s thwarted attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and President Trump’s repeated threats to let Obamacare fail, most consumers are more confused about what’s going on in the health insurance industry today than they were one year ago.

Very few people know this, but this year there’s also a shorter enrollment period: 6 weeks. More people are going to need guidance and services more quickly to enroll in their coverage. I think we can better deliver the guidance and customer support consumers need — a better enrollment experience and an incredible support team to navigate consumers, and we do that entirely free.”

Stride Health’s target niche market accounts for 30 percent of the working age population or 68 million people, according to data from McKinsey.

The company’s approach seeks to help individuals predict their out-of-pocket healthcare costs, lower what they pay for prescription drugs, and understand complex insurance claims. Stride Health makes insurance plan recommendations by helping users estimate their salary and provides a way to compare those plans with others. It estimates the amount a user will spend each year in addition to their monthly premium payments. That estimate also includes payments for procedures, tests, and visits to the doctor. The navigation tool generates that amount based on health spending data for individuals fitting the user’s age and sex.

Among Stride Health’s partners are Care.com, DoorDash, Etsy, Instacart, Postmates, TaskRabbit and Uber.

The insurance navigation subsector of digital health includes several players, such as Wellthie, Zipari, League, Picwell, and HoneyInsured.

Photo: Larry Washburn, Getty Images

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