Editor’s Note: This story first appeared in the Austin Business Journal. It’s presented here in an abbreviated format. To see the original post in its entirety, click here.
With the world enveloped in a pandemic that has no clear end as of yet, few things are more important than how one spends money on health care.
To make things easier on that front, Austin serial entrepreneurs Jason Bornhorst and Colin Anawaty co-founded First Dollar Inc. in October 2019.
But the health care savings account startup remained in stealth mode until now, as Bornhorst and Anawaty announced First Dollar’s initial funding close — a $5 million seed round led by Austin venture capital firm Next Coast Ventures.
Meridian Street Capital, an Indiana-based VC firm that focuses on early-stage health care companies, also participated. Other investors included former Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush, Bright Health Chief Technology Officer Brian Gambs of Minnesota, Austin’s Capital Factory and Julia Cheek, the CEO of Austin health testing startup Everlywell.
First Dollar has created a health savings account with zero fees, which is atypical of employer-based HSAs. Bornhorst and Anawaty are also differentiating First Dollar’s HSA offerings by targeting millennials and Generation Z with everyday language to educate new customers on “how to maximize savings,” according to the company announcement.
Bornhorst and Anawaty sold their previous company, Filament Labs, which did business as Patient IO, to Athenahealth in 2016 for an undisclosed sum.
Part of the money will be used to recruit engineers and designers. And some will be used to enhance the startup’s platform.
First Dollar currently employs 10, but plans to soon hire a marketing person and one customer support person, Bornhorst said: “Virtual new employee onboardings have been an adjustment, but otherwise things are working well in this new environment.”
