Google Capital makes a $32.5M bet on smart health insurance company Oscar

Google Capital has made a $32.5 million investment in the online health insurer and doctor finder Oscar, bringing the startup’s funding total up to $352.5 million at a valuation of $1.75 billion.

The investment comes not too long after Oscar took a monster $145 million funding round in April, at which time the company’s valuation was $1.5 billion.

[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":1803660,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"business,entrepreneur,","session":"A"}']

Oscar does business only in New York and New Jersey, but has racked up 40,000 customers in those states, according to the Wall Street Journal‘s story on the funding announcement. The company has said it plans to offer its health plans to customers in Texas and California in early 2016.

Oscar’s business is to sign up individual consumers to health plans through the exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act. A simple online form is used to gather the information needed to generate a personalized insurance quote.

Winning one consumer at a time, as opposed to marketing to businesses, costs money, however. Oscar said in a regulatory filing that it lost $27.5 million in 2014, on revenue of $56.9 million, according to the WSJ. Oscar said the losses stemmed from investments made in engineering and technology development.

Oscar’s website features an online search function that directs patients toward appropriate doctors after they type in their symptoms using natural language. Patients can screen doctors to make sure they’re in the network prior to booking an appointment.

The company opened its doors for business back in 2013.