Thatch launches with funding from a16z and GV to help startups give great healthcare to their teams

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Feb 15, 2023, 14:00 ET

The healthcare benefits platform enables startups to provide competitive health and wellness benefits for their teams in less time.

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 15, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Thatch announced the launch of its healthcare benefits platform, which helps startups offer competitive health and wellness benefits in less time. The company also announced over $6 million in total funding, including a pre-seed and seed round. The company's seed round was led by a16z and GV, with participation from strategic investors including Lux Capital, Quiet Capital, Not Boring Capital, and BrightEdge (the impact investment arm of the American Cancer Society).

Thatch sits on top of a company's existing health plan to remove the friction employees experience managing their healthcare finances. The product was designed with startups in mind, and today includes a tech-enabled Health Savings Account, or HSA, a Thatch debit card for all healthcare expenses, on-demand access to experts who can resolve billing issues via text, and a dashboard that brings everything together. In short, Thatch is delivering sophisticated solutions to startups that level the competitive playing field for talent.

With budgets tightening in today's economic climate, employers are increasingly looking to benefits solutions to attract and retain talent. A great team is one of the biggest predictors of startup success, and 88% of employees rank healthcare as their most highly valued benefit. This is not surprising because paying for healthcare in the United States is painful and medical debt is the #1 cause of bankruptcy in the country. Thatch believes this challenge presents an opportunity to employers who want to improve the employee healthcare experience.

Thatch enables employers to make paying and saving for healthcare meaningfully easier. Every employee receives a Thatch card to pay for healthcare the way they want: from their checking account, upcoming paycheck, or HSA balance. Intelligent controls make it easy to personalize the experience, reducing the burden of large bills. When employees use their Thatch card, they'll also be able to access intelligent recommendations on things like health plan selection, savings goals, and HSA strategies based on their own expenses.

Thatch's fresh take on the HSA makes saving on healthcare easier. The tech-first approach solves major pain points of existing HSAs — users often don't know which expenses are HSA-eligible, they have to save and categorize their own receipts for future audits or distributions, and have to keep track of contributions against their annual limit. Thatch HSA users can text Thatch at any time to see if purchases are HSA-eligible and save receipts in the Thatch dashboard for compliance and future distributions. Employees can also easily see tax savings from HSA utilization and automatically track contributions against their annual limit.

Medical billing issues are a ubiquitous experience, and one that employers shouldn't have to manage. Thatch's billing experts are available on-demand to help employees understand their medical bills and resolve billing issues. Employees simply upload a bill, share some basic information, and a patient advocate will take care of it behind the scenes.

"Paying for healthcare is painful, but it shouldn't be," said Chris Ellis, co-founder and CEO of Thatch. "We're excited to work with startups who want to improve the healthcare experience for their employees. I continue to be inspired by the fact that what we're building has the potential to impact every American by bringing innovation to an important space that has long been overlooked."

"Thatch is building a smart and original solution for the long-standing healthcare financial crisis in our country, in the form of an exciting new application of financial technology," said Julie Yoo, General Partner at a16z. "We're proud to be backing this exceptionally talented team of healthcare and fintech experts to tackle this problem."

"Rising healthcare costs are a burden on patients and families, and Thatch offers a new path forward to create a more seamless healthcare payment experience," said Krishna Yeshwant, General Partner at GV. "We're excited to work with Chris Ellis, Adam Stevenson, and the Thatch team as they advance their mission to make paying for healthcare easier and more accessible for patients with a tech-enabled approach."

To join Thatch and bring world-class health benefits to your company, visit thatch.ai.

About Thatch

Thatch is on a mission to help businesses give great healthcare to their employees in under five minutes. Founded in 2021 by Chris Ellis and Adam Stevenson, Thatch is the modern health benefits platform for startups. The platform includes a Thatch card for all healthcare spend, tech-enabled HSA to save for future expenses, and bill resolution experts on-demand to answer healthcare financial questions. Backed by leading venture capital firms and strategic investors such as a16z, GV, Lux Capital, Quiet Capital, Not Boring Capital, and BrightEdge (the impact investment arm of the American Cancer Society), Thatch has raised more than $6 million to date. To learn more, visit thatch.ai.

Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Thatch