Erica Plybeah didn’t take the well-worn road from the Delta to Memphis.
And, the native of Greenwood, Mississippi, also took the road less traveled to launch and fund her tech startup, MedHaul.
From 2013 to 2015, Plybeah’s career in clinical informatics — building and implementing clinical software for hospitals and clinics — took her from Florida to Washington, D.C., then to Tucson, Arizona, followed by Houston and New York City.
In 2015, she was recruited by the Memphis Bioworks Foundation to lead a health information exchange, the Mid-South eHealth Alliance. The return to the Mid-South allowed her to be closer to family, as well.
Her grandmother is a Type 2 diabetic double leg amputee who was having issues with medical transportation.
Helping her family member try to find and book non-emergency, medical-related transportation set in motion an idea that combined Plybeah’s tech background with a problem in need of a solution.
And that experience made an entrepreneur out of Plybeah.
MedHaul is a cloud-based tech that streamlines finding and booking transportation to health care facilities via quality, vetted providers.
Plybeah officially founded MedHaul in 2017 after winning the Memphis Medical District Collaborative and Epicenter’s Operation Opportunity business plan competition.
That competition came with $20,000 in seed funding. She then added an additional $50,000 after MedHaul participated in Epicenter’s Logistics Innovation Accelerator in 2017.
“We were able to stretch that $70,000 and turn a few letters of intent into actual pilots,” Plybeah told the Memphis Business Journal in September 2020. “We’re still very early stage using our early technology, but we’ve been able to turn those pilots into contracts.”
Innova Memphis became an early — and lead — investor in MedHaul.
“[MedHaul] can grow into a national model on how you do this,” Innova partner Jan Bouten said.
Yet, even with local backing, the terrain for a med tech startup in the Mid-South can be rugged when trying to raise capital.
Plybeah noted many tech startups launch with $2 million to $3 million, and many are based in hotbeds such as Silicon Valley or on the East Coast.
To date, MedHaul has raised $1.3 million since its founding — the bulk of that being $1.22 million pulled in from an equity round.
“If you hang in there and be persistent, be determined, and have faith — then it is definitely possible,” Plybeah said. “But, it is not easy at all. Fundraising is a brutal journey.”
Plybeah has been strategic about raising capital for MedHaul. And, she has had a string of successful affiliations — both mentorships and investments — with some big company names in tech and finance.
In 2020, MedHaul was chosen for participation in Morgan Stanley’s Multicultural Innovation Lab.
That accelerator’s selection generally comes with a $200,000 investment.
And, in October 2020, Google invested $50,000 in MedHaul via its Google for Startups initiative.
In January 2021, Citi’s new venture capital fund, the Citi Impact Fund, became an equity investor in MedHaul for an undisclosed amount.
And, MedHaul was also selected as a portfolio company of Atlanta-based early-stage investment firm, Outlander Labs.
Those investments have helped the outfit grow. MedHaul now has nine employees and expanded its service reach into Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Georgia.
“We’re really focused on the Southeast, predominantly targeting communities that are usually impacted by higher rates of chronic illness,” Plybeah said.
MedHaul
Top executive: Erica Plybeah, founder and CEO
Year founded: 2017
Number of employees: 9
Location: 20 S. Dudley St., Memphis
Erica Plybeah was one of three honorees highlighted in MBJ's inaugural Emerging Entrepreneurs Awards.
