Banjo Health Exceeds $5M Target in Oversubscribed Series A Round to Bring Transparency and Automation to Prior Authorization with Artificial Intelligence

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Jul 13, 2021, 06:00 ET

WASHINGTON, July 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Banjo Health, a pioneer in AI-driven prior authorization ("PA") solutions, announced today it has raised in excess of $5 million in Series A financing led by Epsilon Health Investors, with participation from Spark Growth Ventures and Tau Ventures. Epsilon Health Investors Co-Founder and General Partner, Gregory Epstein, will be joining Banjo Health's Board of Directors.

Banjo Health is focused on bringing transparency and automation to PA through a suite of workflow tools and AI modules that offer the first true decision support software to allow pharmacy benefit managers and payors to review PA requests. Banjo Health's team consists of AI and machine learning engineers, data scientists and PA experts with previous health plan, pharmacy and PBM experience. With Banjo Health's prior authorization solution, pharmacy benefit managers and payors can reduce turnaround time and improve transparency as to specifically why a PA is being approved or denied.

"Prior authorization continues to be one of the largest and most complex challenges facing the US healthcare system today. This process is error prone, highly manual and is ultimately an administrative burden for both payors and providers. Banjo Health has taken an innovative and sustainable approach to both streamline and bring accountability to the prior authorization process. We are thrilled to partner with the Banjo team," said Gregory Epstein.

Prior authorization has become a burdensome process. Delays in time to therapy drive down member experience and increase costs. Delayed medication, particularly across specialty pharmacy can directly impact outcomes especially when patients drop out of care or abandon medication as a result of prior authorization.

"I am fortunate to have known Saar for 5 years and been actively involved with Banjo since its founding. I have witnessed the impressive strides Banjo has made in a very short duration to address a large pain point in the US healthcare infrastructure. As Banjo further accelerates its growth efforts, SGV is excited to double down on our partnership and continue enabling the Company's mission of bettering PA," said Hem Suri, Founder & Managing Partner, Spark Growth Ventures.

With proceeds from the round, Banjo Health will accelerate their expansion into new customer segments including adding health plans to the company's customer base, and eventually provider clients.

"We are beyond excited to partner with our investors to tackle the PA problem and help members get optimum care at the lowest net cost. The need for a better PA has never been greater, especially with the rise of complex therapies and tightening regulations. Banjo Health is in the best position to enable all stakeholders to have an improved PA experience," said Saar Mahna, Founder and CEO, Banjo Health.

About Banjo Health
Banjo Health is an innovative healthcare technology solution provider that enhances existing practices through Artificial Intelligence (AI). The mission of Banjo Health is to clear the path for healthcare partners to focus on optimal patient care by providing innovative, effective, and efficient technological solutions to overcome administrative barriers. With a focus on simplifying the complexities in Prior Authorization, Banjo is dedicated to improving the healthcare experience for everyone from providers and payers to patients. Solution offerings Harmony PA, Virtuoso AI, and Concerto Suite utilize AI and cloud-based technologies to meet all compliance regulations across all lines of business to provide a more accurate, streamlined, and transparent PA process.

About Epsilon Health Investors
Epsilon Health Investors is a digital healthcare-focused venture capital firm that manages capital on behalf of a group of strategic limited partners, including health systems, other healthcare organizations and influential healthcare executives. Founded by two industry leading healthcare experts, Steven Epstein and Gregory Epstein, Epsilon draws on decades of experience across healthcare investing, advising, providing regulatory support and board leadership. The Epsilon team leverages its strategic LP base, its group of advisors (consisting of former policy makers and chief executives of leading health systems) and the deep experience of its founders to support its portfolio companies and help them achieve scale.

About Spark Growth Ventures
Spark Growth Ventures is a community driven, vertical-agnostic technology VC firm with a mission to support gritty and exceptional founders across the globe. SGV looks to create 360° long-term value within its portfolio through active participation alongside the founders, leveraging the multi-faceted experience of its team as well as its global community of 500+ members.

About Tau Ventures
Tau Ventures (http://tauventures.com) is an AI-first VC fund in Palo Alto focused on three verticals that require deep expertise and are now being massively disrupted – enterprise, health, and automation (cars, drones, robots). Aside from our differentiation in focus we also believe in being hands-on with our companies, having been operators / entrepreneurs first.

SOURCE Banjo Health