MINNEAPOLIS: Nice Healthcare, an innovator in in-home and virtual primary care services, has raised a $5 million Series Seed round of financing to pioneer the next phase of “Frictionless Primary Care.” The Company plans to use the funds to launch its model of care into several new markets.
“For small employers like us, I can’t think of a benefit that delivers more value for our employees than Nice Healthcare, especially in this new world we live in.”
Gene Leistico, HR Director at ACR Homes
Since its inception in October 2017, Nice has focused on making primary care affordable and accessible to people who historically have not had access to care, either for cost concerns, convenience, or other factors. Nice clinicians currently provide healthcare services for over 200 small businesses that encompass 30,000+ members.
Nice’s goal is to enable its care team to treat as many medical conditions as possible. By expanding its offering to include over 550 acute and chronic medications free of charge as well as virtual physical therapy to address the musculoskeletal needs of its patients, Nice is broadening the ways members engage with their Nice provider. Genevieve Swenson, co-Founder and COO, and FNP elaborates. “We want every one of our members to know that we are in their corner. Whether they are healthy, have the sniffles, or are managing chronic health conditions, a Nice healthcare provider is going to be able to engage with them and help them accomplish their goals. Expanding our prescription formulary and adding access to licensed physical therapists are the two newest examples of how we are broadening ways we can help.”
Nice currently operates in 5 states and plans to launch 10 new markets in early 2021, led in part by their expansion team, Agility Innovation Partners, based in Denver, Colorado. Says AgilityIP’s Chief Strategy Officer Drew Kallestad, “The timing could not be better for Nice Healthcare to expand. Our preferred broker network is lighting up throughout the western states to accommodate Nice, and bring it to employers in Nebraska, Colorado, Arizona, and beyond. Nice has established an Net Promoter Score of “90” among their current members. That’s unheard of in healthcare. At AgilityIP, we’re truly blessed to bring Nice direct to thousands of new people who have never experienced care at this caliber.”
“We made a couple of big bets that are really paying off. A belief that bricks and mortar clinics and fee for service has failed patients and clinicians,” explains co-founder and CEO, Thompson Aderinkomi. “Our model of bringing care to the patient – whether that is virtually or by sending a provider to the patient’s home – has never been more attractive to our patients. Pair that with a low, transparent, fixed, capitated rate of $36 per employee per month for our services and we have suddenly established a new paradigm for how patients and providers develop a relationship.”
The Company’s customers include small and medium sized businesses. Nice works closely with these companies to deliver the highest level of care to their employees. “When we decided to offer Nice to our employees, we did so because we believed that improving access to primary care for our employees was the right thing to do and that it is a benefit that they would utilize,” said Gene Leistico, HR Director at ACR Homes. “For small employers like us, I can’t think of a benefit that delivers more value for our employees than Nice Healthcare, especially in this new world we live in.”
“At a time when most healthcare innovation is focused on Medicare, Medicaid, Exchanges, Medicare Advantage or very large employers, Nice Healthcare has stepped in to focus on small employers who bear the brunt of cost increases in our country’s healthcare system. Many of our clients have fewer than 50 employees, our smallest clients have only 5 employees,” Aderinkomi elaborates. “Most healthcare innovation is focused on densely populated areas, leaving smaller cities and rural areas behind. At Nice Healthcare, we are dedicated to bringing our convenient and low-cost care to the parts of the country that are being ignored.”
Indie.vc was the first institutional investor to partner with Nice Healthcare in 2018. Joining Indie.vc are new investors Conductive Ventures and Waterline Ventures who led the Seed round. Bryce Roberts of Indie.vc and Robbie Greenglass of Waterline Ventures will join the Nice Healthcare board of directors. “Nice Healthcare puts patients first in what we believe is the next generation of how primary care will be delivered,” explains Greenglass. “We were blown away by the passion and expertise that Thompson and the founding team at Nice bring to the table. The future of primary care is here and Nice Healthcare is leading the way.”
ABOUT NICE HEALTHCARE
Nice Healthcare is the leader in “Frictionless Primary Care”, primary care in which financial friction and access friction has been eliminated for both patients and clinicians. Nice Healthcare brings healthcare services into the patient’s home using a combination of in-person and virtual visits. Nice contracts directly with employers to provide unlimited access to its service under a transparent and capitated rate of $36 per employee per month. Dependents are free and there are no visit fees billed to the patients for any of Nice’s services which include in-home primary care visits, virtual visits, 550+ prescriptions, in-home labs, in-home x-rays, and virtual physical therapy and chronic condition management.
ABOUT WATERLINE VENTURES
Waterline Ventures is a Boston-based Venture Capital firm that invests in the early stage healthcare technology and services companies that are improving the way care is delivered. Increasing costs, inconsistent quality, and inadequate access to healthcare create the need for innovation. Companies that address these issues stand to create tremendous value while improving people’s lives across the country and around the world. There is a massive and growing opportunity for technological transformation in healthcare. Our entrepreneurs are leading the change within the healthcare system.
ABOUT CONDUCTIVE VENTURES
Conductive Ventures invests in expansion stage companies with a focus on enterprise software and hardware entrepreneurs. The team is led by institutional venture investors and operators with unmatched experience in the sector. Conductive Ventures focuses on post-product companies with early customer success. The team works closely with its portfolio companies to deliver demonstrable revenue acceleration through targeted introductions and partnerships.
ABOUT INDIE.VC
Indie.vc is a program designed to fund and support founders on a path to profitability. They believe deeply that there are hundreds, even thousands, of businesses that could be thriving, at scale, if they focused on revenue growth over raising another round of funding. On average, the companies they have backed have increased revenues over 100% in the first 12 months of the program and around 300% after 24 months post-investment. They aim to be the last investment their founders need to take. They call this Permissionless Entrepreneurship.
ABOUT AGILITY INNOVATION PARTNERS
Agility Innovation Partners is a healthcare innovation accelerator, focused on launching and delivering the most promising new healthcare innovations into the marketplace. AgilityIP represents innovation partners in the initiative areas of health technology, healthcare price transparency and Direct Primary Care, connecting innovative solutions providers to thought-leading brokers, consultancies associations and consortiums. This ground-level, “last mile” go-to-market approach helps bring maximum exposure for upstarts which otherwise often go unseen by many of the most influential buyers in business today. AgilityIP’s innovation partners are vetted based on two primary factors: 1) Do they improve health? and 2) Do they remove cost? They call this Value-based Innovation.