More than 1 in 4 Americans had trouble paying a recent medical bill according to the New York Times. 66.5% of all bankruptcies are tied to medical issues. Despite ACA providing more coverage, often this coverage is not adequate enough to prevent financial strain on families. Brella Insurance is a modern, employer-sponsored supplemental health insurance provider that covers insured members for expenses for 13,000 covered conditions ranging from concussions to cancer. The company, founded in 2019, provides direct payments to the insured allowing them to skip the tedious complex claims and administration processes found with other providers.
AlleyWatch caught up with Founder and CEO Veer Gidwaney to learn more about the state of the supplemental insurance market, the company’s plans for a nationwide rollout, recent round of funding, which brings the total funding raised to $22M, and much, much more.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
Brella has raised a $15M Series A led by Brewer Lane, which was founded by former New York Life President, John Kim. New investors in the round include Fidelity Security Life Insurance Company among others. Existing investors SymphonyAI LLC, Digitalis Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, New York Life Ventures, and Founder Collective, among others, also participated in the round. John Kim will join our board of directors.
Tell us about the product or service that Brella Insurance offers.
Brella is a new kind of tech-enabled supplemental health insurance that pays consumers cash benefits if they’re diagnosed with any of 13,000 covered conditions.
What inspired the start of Brella Insurance?
60% of Americans today would have to borrow to cover an unexpected $1,000 bill, yet the average health insurance deductible is $1644 (source: KFF). So any trip to the ER can suddenly create financial stress. Today’s supplemental plans don’t shield people from these types of expenses, and they’re massively under-utilized because they don’t deliver value. Benefits veteran and seasoned entrepreneur Veer Gidwaney founded Brella to design a totally new supplemental health plan to ensure that health hardships don’t create financial burdens.
How is Brella Insurance different?
Supplemental plans today have narrow coverage and complex rules that don’t create a good customer experience. Brella covers 3x more than Accident and Critical Illness plans combined. Plus we use technology to make Brella easy for employers to manage and easy for members to file a claim and get paid in 72 hours—not weeks. That means employers can offer more coverage with just one plan and employees can have their benefits in hand before medical bills arrive in the mail.
What market does Brella Insurance target and how big is it?
Brella is a health benefits solution designed for employer groups and their teams of all sizes in all industries across the U.S. Today, the supplemental health insurance market is estimated at $10B, but a high percentage of employers have yet to implement a valuable supplemental health solution like Brella.
What’s your business model?
Brella makes money by charging premiums for coverage. Premiums can be paid by the employee or the employer. Increasingly we’re seeing employers contribute or 100% fund Brella to sit alongside their core health insurance plan.
How has COVID-19 impacted the business?
COVID-19 highlights one of the major advantages of Brella’s plan design and wide-ranging coverage. Although the plan was designed in 2019 before the disease arrived in the U.S., Brella pays benefits for most of the major complications of COVID-19, including pneumonia, acute respiratory failure, and sepsis.
What was the funding process like?
Brella has raised $22M to date, and our Series A came together quickly with the leadership of Brewer Lane’s John Kim, who will be joining our board. We saw renewed investments from our existing investors, which shows how much faith they have in our strategy and product. We feel especially fortunate to have so many investors who bring insurance expertise along with capital.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
We’re solving a big problem… Our plan design and technology will allow us to simplify and automate our claims process so that we can run a lean operation and provide an unmatched customer experience for employers and members. We’re also poised to partner with leading benefits brokerage firms and strategic partners who can take Brella to market and help us scale quickly.
We’re solving a big problem… Our plan design and technology will allow us to simplify and automate our claims process so that we can run a lean operation and provide an unmatched customer experience for employers and members. We’re also poised to partner with leading benefits brokerage firms and strategic partners who can take Brella to market and help us scale quickly.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
In the next 6 months, we will be focused on expanding our product nationwide, and we’ll be focused on closing and activating strategic partnerships to scale distribution of Brella’s offering.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Keep going and don’t quit. I’ve been a part of building several companies in my career and I heard a lot of NOs in the process. You have to find the people who understand your vision and are prepared to come alongside you for the journey.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
Brella has established product-market fit, and we’re entering a stage of rapid expansion both geographically and in terms of distribution partnerships.
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC
Cookshop!
