Bright Health Inc. announced Tuesday that it had raised a $500 million Series E fundraising round. The Minneapolis-based health insurance startup has now raised over $1.5 billion in venture capital since it was founded in 2015.
New Bright Health investors who participated in the round include New York-based Tiger Global Management; Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price Group Inc.; and New York-based The Blackstone Group Inc. There was also participation from existing investors like San Francisco-based Bessemer Venture Partners; Chevy Chase, Md.-based New Enterprise Associates; and Owings Mills, Md.-based Greenspring Associates.
The company expects to have a revenue of more than $1.2 billion in 2020, a jump from $400 million in 2019, It now covers more than 200,000 members in 13 states. Bright Health offers plans on the ACA marketplace, as well as Medicare Advantage plans. Earlier this year, it announced that it will add employer-based plans and small-group plans in 2021.
"At Bright Health we are leveraging our person-centric, intelligent technology platform to build a diversified and digitally integrated health care company. This funding allows us to continue to scale our transformative model and fulfill our purpose of lowering health care costs while improving outcomes, experience and access," Bright Health CEO Mike Mikan said in a statement.
Mikan, a former UnitedHealth Group Inc. executive and the one-time CEO of Best Buy Co. Inc., was named Bright's CEO in April.
Bright Health's record-breaking (for Minnesota) fundraising hauls have largely gone unspent. Health insurance companies are required by each state they operate in to have a large amount of cash on hand as reserves. It closed a $635 million round of fundraising in December 2019, which is believed to be the largest in Minnesota's history. It also raised $200 million in 2018, $160 million in 2017 and $80 million in 2016.
“In under four years, we’ve witnessed the evolution of Bright Health from a startup into a diversified industry leader with the ability to accelerate growth across every part of the health care sector," New Enterprise General Partner Mohamad Makhzoumi said in a statement.
