Startup supplemental insurance company Brella Insurance has closed a $15 million series A funding round and now has its eye on nationwide expansion.
The round was led by Brewer Lane Ventures, and the firm's founder and managing partner, John Kim, will join Brella's board of directors. The insurance startup has raised $22 million in funding to date.
Brella is a tech-enabled supplemental coverage option that offers its members a cash payment if they're diagnosed with any of more than 13,000 conditions that range from concussions to cancer. Veer Gidwaney, the company's founder and CEO, told Fierce Healthcare that the team saw a clear avenue to address affordability.
Many people who are covered by health insurance have a large deductible that, should they be diagnosed with a high-cost condition or be hospitalized, could leave them vulnerable to high bills they cannot pay, he said.
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Brella aims to alleviate some of that challenge by providing supplemental plans that cover a broader list of services than other supplemental coverage, Gidwaney said.
"We hear about the affordability in America being sort of the biggest challenge," he said. "We’ve built something that we believe is simpler."
Gidwaney added that Brella also aims to ease the claims process for its members, as many existing supplemental plans have a lengthy and complex process for paying claims.
Brella is currently available in Texas but with the series A funding banked the startup has its eye on nationwide expansion. Gidwaney said the Brella team spent the last year working to ensure the coverage was a market fit, and now that they have that base, they're aiming to get it into the hands of as many employers as possible.
New investors during the round also include Fidelity Security Life Insurance Company. Previous investors SymphonyAI LLC, Digitalis Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, New York Life Ventures and Founder Collective also participated in the series A round.