Oscar, an NYC company that touts itself as the first direct-to-consumer health insurer, announced Friday it raised $225 million in new funding. The company also claims to be the first of its kind to offer free 24/7 telemedicine to its members and provide direct scheduling with providers through its mobile app.
Existing investors, including Alphabet, General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, Lakestar and Thrive Capital, participated in the round, as did newcomers Baillie Gifford and Coatue.
To date, Oscar has raised a total of $1.5 billion. The company’s last raise was back in 2018, when it raised a combined $540 million through a $375 million corporate round led by Alphabet plus a $165 million venture round led by Founders Fund.
Oscar says this latest funding positions the company to reach its revenue goal of $2 billion, putting the company “on a path to further advance its mission of making health care simple.”
“Transforming the healthcare insurance experience requires the creation of personalized, affordable experiences at scale,” CEO Mario Schlosser said in a statement. “At Oscar, we combine our full-stack technology platform and data-driven approach to deliver seamless care that meets members where they are. We have created an experience that feels like you have a doctor in the family.”
Schlosser co-founded Oscar in 2012 with Joshua Kushner, who is the younger brother of Jared Kushner, a senior White House adviser and son-in-law to President Donald Trump. In fact, Oscar got into some hot water in March when the company reportedly teamed up with federal officials to create a coronavirus website the president had originally said was going to be made by Google.
An Atlantic investigation revealed that a team of Oscar team members and executives spent about five days building a website “at the government’s request,” raising concerns about the Trump family potentially mingling business interests with political ones. The project was quickly scrapped and now Oscar hosts its own COVID-19 resources page.
The company claims its app gets downloaded five times more than the average top insurers. Oscar is now offered in 15 states and in 29 U.S. markets, boasting more than 420,000 members.
