Bright Health has topped off its already impressive fundraising with a $200 million oversubscribed Series C funding round, the Minnesota-based integrated health insurance startup announced this morning. Support came from new investors Declaration Partners and Meritech Capital, as well as from returning backers Bessemer Venture Partners, Cross Creek Advisors, Flare Capital, Greenspring Associates, Greycroft Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Redpoint Ventures and Town Hall Ventures.
Through its Care Partner Health Plan business model, Bright Health looks to partner with just a single health system per market to more seamlessly embed its payer services into the patient’s care journey. Bright Health offers its plans at the individual, family and Medicare levels, and boasts a consumer-friendly technology platform that includes web tools and a mobile app for finding care, as well as a health rewards program.
Currently, the startup said that its plans are currently available in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, New York City, Ohio and Tennessee. According to this morning’s announcement, Bright Health
will be using its new funding to push into additional markets while supplementing and expanding its tech.
Why it matters
Bright Health’s expansion is another vote of confidence for the startup and other integrated, tech-driven companies looking to upend the insurer market. As such, it’s little surprise that CEO Bob Sheehy — who previously served as CEO of UnitedHealthcare and has been outspoken about injecting tech and consumer-focused services into the payer model — attributed the strong round to his company’s position as an innovator in the field.
"Investor demand for the round was driven by Bright Health's outperformance, high re-enrollment rate and growth potential,” Sheehy told MobiHealthNews in an email. “This growth potential is due in large part to our proven Care Partner Health Plan Model which is being replicated across the country by corporations and insurance companies, alike. As first movers, we believe we are well positioned to continue our rapid growth in 2019 and beyond as well as further develop and improve our leading consumer-centric technology platform and data infrastructure to improve health outcomes."
What’s the trend
Today’s announcement brings Bright Health’s total funding to the impressive sum of $440 million, with previous $160 million and $80 million rounds having come in 2017 and 2016, respectively.
As far as its contemporaries, last month saw a staggering $300 million investment round for Devoted, another insurer looking to technology in its blend of payer and provider services.
On the record
“As a growth investment fund, Meritech is looking for opportunities to invest in fast growing sector leaders whose potential to use technology will enhance the customer experience of large populations,” Craig Sherman, managing director at Meritech Capital Partners, said in a statement. “Not only has Bright Health proved this is possible with its above average re-enrollment rates, but the data infrastructure that they are building has the potential to produce better health outcomes for millions of hardworking Americans and disrupt health insurance – and healthcare – as we have come to know and accept it.”
