A Louisville-based startup has been selected for Village Capital's Finhealth U.S. cohort.
Repaytient is among the cohort of early-stage companies chosen for their fintech solutions that tackle financial health challenges for low-to-moderate income communities and small businesses. Founded in April 2020, Repaytient offers customizable, interest-free payment plans to help patients pay for their out-of-pocket medical expenses, while also enabling hospitals to increase cash flow and decrease collections' overhead.
Chief Operating Officer Chris Blakeley said he is excited to be a part of nonprofit accelerator program that helps connect startups with strategic partners, customers, founders and investors. This isn't Repaytient's first accelerator — it was in XLerateHealth's 2020 cohort in Louisville.
While XLerateHealth was focused on health care-specific companies, Village Capital's cohorts are made up of all fintech companies, Blakeley said. Repaytient is the only Kentucky-based startup in this cohort, which includes Small Change, Let's Get Set, LoanSense, NuMarket, OneEleven, PocketCFO, Frizzmo, Crowd Capital, College Cash, Cher and Challenger.
"Village Capital is focused on financial health," he said, noting that of the 12 companies in the cohort, Repaytient is the only one engaged in the health care space. "So far, it has been different just to see that we're the only health care-based entity, but we're still all working toward the same thing, which is allowing folks to pay for the things that are important like their health, keeping a roof over their head and feeding their families."
The goal of the accelerator is to set companies up to go raise their next round of capital, and that's exactly what Repaytient is gearing up to do in 2022.
Repaytient just received a $100,000 from Render Capital through its annual competition this fall and has also secured a $25,000 investment from Kentucky Science & Technology Corp. Those investments are in addition to the $100,000 from private investors used to start the business last year.
Repaytient has hit quite a few milestones in the 18 months since its founding. It launched in its first hospital in November 2020 and has since landed six contracts with more in negotiation, while also expanding its partnership with Alliant Management Services, a Louisville-based company that specializes in rural hospital management.
"We feel like we've gotten enough validation from the market and traction to say that we're now ready to go take a large institutional round of capital to go and really accelerate the growth of business," Blakeley said, adding that the funds will mostly be used to expand operations staff and marketing efforts, as a majority of its technology will be already be built.
The amount of capital Repaytient is seeking in this funding round isn't finalized, Blakeley continued. He anticipates the round will close by the first quarter of 2022.
