OneBridge Benefits was preparing for an era of significant growth.
The company wanted employees to participate in that, too.
OneBridge earlier this year raised $2 million in funding. The investors? Its own employees, along with a few friends and family contributors.
The company offered a group of its employees the chance to participate in the round. Nineteen out of 20 of them wrote checks in return for an equity stake.
“We wanted to give any employees with more than five years of experience, or who was a manager, the opportunity to buy in at a reduced valuation so they could be part of this next phase of significant growth,” CEO Nicholas Knab said.
Knab said OneBridge also reorganized from an LLC to a corporation earlier this year, partly so it could offer equity-based compensation to employees. OneBridge has never had institutional investors and Knab said that remains the plan going forward.
Former Meritain Health staffers Knab, Josh Bishop and Ryan Schultz founded OneBridge in 2012, offering a web-based platform that connects public sector employees to health care retirement and flexible spending accounts.
The company has grown to 60 employees and is preparing to occupy a second floor in its downtown Buffalo headquarters, Ellicott Development’s Crosby Building.
OneBridge Benefits headquarters
OneBridge initially grew on the back of its software products, and while they remain a big part of the company, it is now focusing on becoming a full-service health insurance agency. The company launched its YourWay Frontier product earlier this year, allowing clients to offer flexibility to their employees by giving them health reimbursement funds that they can use to purchase health insurance to fit their needs.
The $2 million raise will support OneBridge’s national expansion, Knab said.
OneBridge is one of 21 local companies to acknowledge a private, growth-oriented round of funding this year. The list includes Torch Labs ($40 million), Centivo ($30 million), Circuit Clinical ($29 million), Kangarootime ($26 million), SparkCharge ($22 million), PostProcess Technologies ($5 million), VeriTX ($4.5 million), HELIXintel ($4 million), ShearShare ($2.3 million), Azuna Fresh ($2.5 million), Patient Pattern ($2 million), OneBridge Benefits ($2 million), BetterMynd ($1 million), Cahill Tech ($375,000), Ellicottville Greens ($300,000), Swift Rails ($255,000) AireXpert ($125,000), Arbol ($110,000), Lemma Labs ($100,000), Timberhut (undisclosed) and Ognomy (undisclosed).
