A two-year-old Nashville startup has received a 10-figure valuation.
Value-based health care firm CareBridge has closed a $140 million round of funding, Executive Chairman Brad Smith said, led by existing investor Oak HC/FT, with participation from managed medicaid plans Optum Ventures, CVS Ventures, Anthem Inc. and HLM Venture Partners.
CareBridge was formed in early 2020 by a group of former Aspire executives, including Smith and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.
CareBridge’s services are aimed at assisting low-income seniors, disabled people and others in need of long-term care with daily tasks such as bathing, administering medication and arranging appointments. CareBridge allows members, caregivers and health plans to share clinical information, while providing around-the-clock support and daily check-ins inside the patient’s home.
CareBridge’s new investment comes in at a valuation of more than $1 billion, Smith said, launching the startup into "unicorn" territory, a buzzy Silicon Valley term for startups with a ten-digit-plus valuation. That number is notable for Nashville’s startup community, even for a business born out of the city’s massive health care industry.
Smith said the valuation shows that health plans are eager for services to help the nation’s Medicaid population, which is often overshadowed by Medicare.
“It speaks to how much opportunity there is to improve care for Medicaid patients across the country. I hope the fact that CareBridge is going so well will encourage people to think about building innovative solutions in the Medicaid space,” said Smith, the former leader of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation during the Trump Administration. “[CEO] Mike [Tudeen] and I are both committed to continuing to build businesses here in Nashville and … I’m really grateful to Mike and the team and glad that [CareBridge] is going so well.”
Much of the funds will be used to further fuel CareBridge’s already fast growth, Smith said. The company has gone from serving 1,100 patients in June of last year to approximately 19,000 patients today.
CareBridge has grown from 20 employees in 2020 to 198 workers, Tudeen said, with plans to reach a 250-person headcount by the end of the year. Most of those new hires will be for clinical roles. The company expects to expand into six new states by next year, for a total footprint of 16 states and the District of Columbia.
The startup is also investing in a first-of-its-kind database of home and community-based service patients in the U.S., Smith said. The database will allow CareBridge to aggregate that data to see patterns, he said, with the goal of improving care. The company’s platform helps states and insurance companies identify which seniors need what service, at what level and coordinate the appropriate reimbursement, with the goal of lowering costs.
Finally, CareBridge is expanding its services to care for patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“Part of what has accelerated our growth is the ability and respect we have with the local Medicaid agencies,” Tudeen said. "To the Medicaid agencies in all the states that we’re in, our solutions are resonating very strongly with them. What we find is that as other states move through new procurement, that our solutions are very well aligned with the innovations that health plans are expecting.”
The $140 million round of funding is the second big investment Greenwich, Connecticut-based Oak HC/FT has led into CareBridge. When the startup was launched, Oak HC/FT led with a $40 million round of funding. The investment firm also helped to inject $26.4 million alongside First Cressey Ventures to help launch Smith’s Russell Street Ventures’ rural health startup Main Street Health.
Smith said Oak HC/FT is the perfect partner for CareBridge, because of Oak HC/FT co-founder and Managing Partner Annie Lamont’s desire to see innovation in the Medicaid.
“Annie has been a great partner to us across multiple companies. She’s someone who is really thoughtful and very interested in the Medicaid space,” Smith said. “The need for services for this patient population is something she is very passionate about.”
