Travelling overseas comes with its distinctive set of stresses, and one of many largest is what to do if you end up unwell. Can you discover a physician who speaks your language, will settle for your insurance coverage, and allow you to keep away from the prices and stress of visiting an unfamiliar hospital emergency room?
A startup referred to as Air Doctor has constructed a platform to assist individuals on this very predicament, and it has now raised a Series B of $20 million after seeing sturdy engagement thus far for its product.
That product is an element listing, half algorithmically-driven location primarily based service supplier, and half accounting tech. Air Doctor at its hear is a listing of vetted medical doctors in numerous international locations together with profiles of what they cowl and what languages they communicate, that are in flip supplied to customers to browse and use as wanted for both in-person or distant consultations.
Patients themselves don’t pay the medical doctors or get entangled in getting claims lined by their respective insurance coverage suppliers. Behind the scenes, Air Doctor then matches up prospects’ insurance coverage insurance policies with the providers which can be rendered, and manages the funds to medical doctors to get reimbursed by these insurance coverage corporations themselves. Air Doctor takes a service price and fee in that course of, however all the identical, it claims that its efforts as center man lead to 50% financial savings on outpatient claims total, 60% financial savings for medical help suppliers, and financial savings in dealing with and processing time of 75%.
Air Doctor now has greater than 80,000 prospects, boosted partially by the use of contracts with some 18 main medical insurance suppliers; and it supplies a listing of 20,000 medical doctors throughout 84 international locations. (It began as a B2C supplier however is now a mix of B2B2C with insurance coverage corporations within the center referring people to Air Doctor, together with others utilizing the service straight.)
And with its revenues rising at 2.5x yearly, in line with CEO and co-founder Jenny Cohen Derfler, and the variety of individuals travelling internationally ballooning — the UN estimates the determine at 790 million within the first seven months of this yr — “The potential is much larger,” she mentioned. (And sure there are different startups concentrating on travellers and their well being wants: Feather is constructing an insurance coverage platform for expats.)
The buyers on this spherical underscore the chance that the corporate is concentrating on: aMoon, an Israeli VC that focuses particularly on well being and life sciences, is main the spherical, with different new backers together with insurance coverage large Tokio Marine Holdings and Samsung Ventures (SVIC). Previous backers Lightspeed Venture Partners, Vintage Investment Partners, and two extra business biggies — Phoenix Insurance, and Munich Re Ventures — are additionally taking part.
The buyers additionally spell out one other facet of the tech potential that the corporate has been constructing out:
“Air Doctor is … leveraging advanced algorithms and app-based solutions to provide timely, quality medical care for travelers worldwide,” Todd Sone, General Partner in aMoon in a press release.
Derfler’s curiosity in constructing Air Doctor is available in half from her and her accomplice (and co-founder’s) personal background. Derfler described herself to me in an interview as a “nomad”: she initially hails from Uruguay; travelled round South America; frolicked in different international locations; and presently lives in Israel.
Her husband, Yam Derfler, initially got here up with the thought for the corporate when travelling.
In South America, he fell ailing and realized he had no concept navigate the native well being system to search out a physician. He went to a hospital as an alternative, which proved to have its personal dramatic turns.
Back at residence in Israel, when he and Jenny began to look deeper on the downside, it was clear that Yam and different shoppers weren’t alone. Insurance corporations additionally didn’t have a transparent path to recommending medical doctors in a community when contemplating international international locations exterior their residence…
