This morning San Francisco-based API startup Noyo announced a $12.5 million Series A funding round for its technology designed to facilitate health insurance data exchanges. Costanoa Ventures and Spark Capital led the round with participation from Homebrew, Fika Ventures, Precursor Ventures, Core Innovation Capital, Garuda Ventures and Webb Investment Network. 

The news was paired with two partnership announcements with health insurance companies Humana and Amerita. 

WHAT IT DOES

The company is developing carrier-agnostic APIs that can communicate between different insurance and health organizations. The company pitches itself as a way for insurance companies to scale partnership and reduce costs. 

The product is also able to transmit employee eligibility data from benefits administration sites and insurance carriers through APIs. 

WHAT IT’S FOR 

The startup plans to use the funds in order to hire new staff members and expand its product line. It will also put the infusion of cash towards expanding partnerships with new insurers and benefits platforms, the company said. 

MARKET SNAPSHOT 

APIs are hitting the radar of the federal government. In March HHS’ final interoperability rules spelled out that by January 1, 2021, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, CHIP and plans on the federal Exchanges (that begin in 2021) will be required to support a standardized API (HL7 FHIR version 4.0.1), which lets patients access claims and various information related to their medical encounter, such as cost or clinical information, through a third-party app of their choice. The API could also be used to integrate a health plan's information to a patient's EHR.

This isn’t the first company to address APIs and insurance. As far back as 2015, Eligible, an API that helps health tech companies to streamline insurance eligibility, raised $2.3 million. 

ON THE RECORD 

"The age of connected health insurance is here," Shannon Goggin, CEO and cofounder of Noyo, said in a statement. "It should be simple for someone heading to the doctor to confirm, right on their phone, that they are covered for the visit. Someone considering a new job offer should be able to factor in how the benefits package meets their needs. Noyo works every day to make those experiences possible. We take care of the technology under the hood so software teams can stay focused on building the tools people deserve."