Bright Health has acquired a telehealth company that provides virtual care software to nearly 60 health systems nationwide.
The Minneapolis, Minn.-based insurtech startup paid an undisclosed sum to buy Zipnosis, a telehealth platform that physicians from the University of Alabama Birmingham Health System and more used to treat more than 2 million patients last year. Zipnosis has raised nearly $25 million in venture funding, with investments from Ascension Ventures and more.
Bright Health recently expanded through an acquisition of Central Health Plan of California, which will grow its Medicare Advantage enrollment to 110,000 enrollees. The company currently counts more than 500,000 individual, small business, family and Medicare Advantage members across 13 states. Bright Health also owns and manages approximately 40 risk-bearing primary care clinics and partners with local providers to manage care for their patients.
The move to add more robust telehealth services comes after reports that Bright Health could seek a $1 billion public offering as soon as the second quarter of 2021, a sum essentially in line with what Medicare Advantage-focused startup Agilon Health seeks to raise and a valuation near what Oscar Health initially sought—but failed to achieve—through an IPO earlier this year. Competitor Alignment Healthcare, meanwhile, seeks a valuation of just $3.5 billion, less than half what Oscar and Bright believe they're worth.
Bright Health has so far raised $1.6 billion in venture funding. The company was co-founded in 2015 by former UnitedHealth Group CEO Bob Sheehy.
