Internet and technology group Alphabet has invested roughly $375m in US-based online health insurance portal Oscar Health, taking a stake of about 10% in the process, Wired reported yesterday.
Founded in 2012, Oscar runs an online platform that enables users to access a range of plans through an app in addition to personal nurses. It also provides on-demand doctor calls, helping to ensure relatively minor issues do not grow into more serious conditions.
The company has now raised a total of $1.31bn, its last funding coming in a $165m round in March this year featuring Alphabet subsidiaries CapitalG and Verily Life Sciences that valued it at $3.2bn according to CNBC.
Salar Kamangar, senior vice-president of YouTube and video at Alphabet subsidiary Google, will join Oscar’s board of directors according to Oscar CEO Mario Schlosser, who told Wired: “Alphabet has come to the conclusion that they want to put more behind the company.
“It is fantastic for us because it will really allow us to focus fully on the core model we have been building for the past six years, which is: use technology, use data, use design, use a human approach to build a very different health care experience. And that is what this allows us to do.”
Oscar intends to hire more engineers, data scientists, product designers and clinicians as it looks to join Medicare Advantage, a national health insurance plan that involves monthly contributions, by 2020, Schlosser added.
The March round was led by venture capital firm Founders Fund and included investment and financial services group Fidelity and VC firms 8VC, General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures and Thrive Capital.
CapitalG, Alphabet’s growth equity arm, first invested in Oscar as part of a $32.5m round in 2015 that valued it at $1.75bn, and which also featured Goldman Sachs, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Thrive Capital, 8VC, Horizon Ventures and Wellington Management.
Fidelity subsequently led a $400m round for the company in 2016 that included CapitalG, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, Thrive Capital, Lakestar and Ping An Ventures, a subsdiary of insurance group Ping An, at a $2.7bn valuation.