Collective Health takes $81M from Google Ventures, others, to go nationwide

Collective Health said today it’s taking a large new funding round from Google Ventures and others to offer its health insurance management platform to employers nationwide in 2016.

The $81 million funding round comes from first-time investor Google Ventures and existing investors NEA and Founders Fund, along with Maverick Capital, Redpoint Ventures, and RRE Ventures.

San Mateo, California-based Collective Health has been offering its service to California companies for the past two years. To date, the startup has racked up exactly six employer customers, with 30,000 employees and dependents under plan.

The startup’s managed solution gives employers a way to enroll employees in health plans (this could mean an employer self-insured plan or a commercial plan) via an easy-to-use online interface. That alone is a big improvement to the process, which is typically done on paper. Further, Collective Health processes the claims employees submit to the plans once they enroll.

“One-fifth of our country’s GDP goes toward paying for something where there is no clarity on why things cost what they do,” Collective Health founder Ali Diab told VentureBeat back in March, “and the customer experience of interacting with your health insurer feels like entering a time warp back to 1980.”

Collective Health has so far raised $119 million in venture funding, including a $32 million round in March 2015.

The company said its expects its platform to serve 30,000 members in 2016 and to process more than $200 million in health insurance claims.

“We’re working to shift the focus of health insurance from profits to people,” said Diab today. “This significant infusion of capital comes at the perfect moment, enabling us to make our solution available to companies across the U.S.”

Founded in 2013, Collective Health said it now has more than 120 employees.