Small and medium-sized companies (SMBs) have for many years struggled with having the ability to provide their staff medical insurance.
Sana, a startup that desires to make providing medical insurance plans extra accessible to these companies, has raised $60 million in a Sequence B funding spherical.
Belief Ventures and Gigafund co-led the spherical, which brings the Austin, Texas-based startup’s complete raised to $107 million since its 2017 inception. Present backers embrace American Household Ventures, mark vc, Breyer Capital, JAM Fund and Liquid 2. The corporate declined to disclose its valuation, saying solely that it had “roughly doubled” since its $20 million Series A extension final October.
Put merely, Sana’s mission is to supply “higher and extra reasonably priced” well being plans to SMBs. It claims to avoid wasting corporations as much as 20% in comparison with their present medical insurance.
“Our plans cowl all the things legacy well being insurers do whereas together with free visits to next-generation digital care providers in major care, psychological well being, pediatrics and maternity,” mentioned co-founder and CEO Will Younger.
Sana affords its plans in eight states, together with Arizona, Oklahoma, Texas, Illinois, Ohio and Kentucky. Having not too long ago expanded into Virginia and Indiana, it plans to make use of its new capital partly to maneuver into new states in coming months.
Its goal clients aren’t simply small companies that already provide medical insurance plans, but in addition people who beforehand couldn’t afford to offer healthcare to staff, in response to Younger. He estimates that 35-40% of its new clients are such companies.
Most clients obtain 0% enhance renewals, which Younger says is uncommon within the trade, and have low co-pays.
Sana has about 20,000 folks on its well being plans at present, and has tripled the variety of clients over the previous 12 months, he mentioned. They embrace Bishop Cider, Ben Hogan Golf and BrewBike, amongst others.
“We’re not worthwhile but, however plan to get there with this spherical of funding,” Younger instructed TechCrunch.
The corporate’s mannequin is exclusive, in his view, due to its vertically built-in strategy. It makes cash by charging charges for quite a lot of providers associated to promoting, underwriting and administering well being plans. It additionally earns income on insurance coverage danger.
In January, Sana opened its first bodily major care well being middle, dubbed Sana MD, for its members in Austin. Concierge care on the middle is out there to its members on most plans freed from cost, in response to Younger.
Notably, each Belief Ventures and Gigafund have been traders in Sana for the reason that firm’s seed spherical in 2019. The latter has led 4 separate rounds of funding within the firm, as a result of “the crew continues to impress…with their phenomenal imaginative and prescient and execution,” mentioned Stephen Oskoui, managing associate of Gigafund, in a written assertion.
Salen Churi, founder and common associate at Belief Ventures, believes that Sana’s strengths lie in its capability to leverage “an enormous community of suppliers” and “offering entry to cutting-edge digital well being and wellness applied sciences — all at a decrease price to small companies than legacy medical insurance.”
In addition to increasing into new markets, Sana plans to make use of its new capital to rent throughout its operations, member advocacy, gross sales and advertising groups. It additionally plans to open extra major care well being facilities in extra places, in response to Younger.
Presently, remote-first Sana has 170 staff, up from 80 at first of 2021.
The insurtech sector has had its ups and downs as of late. Publicly traded corporations within the area are still struggling whereas different startups are laying off and nonetheless others additionally raising new capital at unicorn valuations.
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