Founders: Josh Kushner, Kevin Nazemi, Mario Schlosser (CEO)
Launched: 2012
Headquarters: New York City
Funding: $903.9 million (Pitchbook)
Valuation: $3.2 billion (PitchBook)
Key technologies: Machine learning, predictive analytics
Disrupting: Health care, insurance
George Kavallines | CNBC
Even though President Donald Trump signed legislation in December that repealed the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act, Oscar Health is still on a roll. That's important to note, since the ACA was vital to Oscar and provided a healthy percentage of its customers. Still, the New York-based company (which currently does business in six states) now claims more than $300 million in gross premiums in Q1, and says it's on track to pass $1 billion in revenue this year. It expects to have 260,000 members enrolled by year-end.
It also just raised a fresh batch of funding. In March, Founders Fund, along with Alphabet's Capital G and Verily, its life sciences segment, invested $165 million in Oscar. That brings the company's valuation to $3.2 billion, up from its last-reported valuation of $2.7 billion in 2016. Other investors include PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, General Catalyst Partners, Goldman Sachs and Khosla Ventures.
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The company was started in 2012 by co-founders Mario Schlosser, Josh Kushner (brother of Jared, Ivanka's husband) and Kevin Nazemi after Kushner hurt his ankle and was frustrated when he couldn't make sense of a bill from his health insurance company. Oscar's mission: to make buying health insurance easier, more transparent and to provide better customer service.
Entering a market that is notorious for doing the opposite of all three of those things seems easy, but unlike mavericks such as Uber and Airbnb, Oscar has some strict government regulations to abide by.
Still, the company says its tech-centric approach, which includes a mobile app for scheduling appointments and consulting with a doctor, makes it a fierce competitor of giants such as UnitedHealthcare and Aetna. It says 41 percent of its members use the app and website to manage their health every month, and 43 percent of members' first visits to a doctor are routed through Oscar. After nearly six years in operation, the company says it generated an underwriting profit last year, and its plan is to add four to five cities every year in individual, small group and other market segments.
