Soda Health Launches, Bringing New Technology for Health Care Payments

Soda Health, a new company aiming to better align and personalize supplemental benefits with an individual’s health status and outcomes, officially launched . Lightspeed Venture Partners and Define Ventures recently co-led a $6 million seed funding round, including investment from Qiming Venture Partners USA. Among its core solutions, Soda Health will provide health plans and consumers the foundational technology needed to bridge the gap between medical claims and retail payments.

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“Until now, the healthcare industry has relied on legacy payments technologies which have left both health plans and consumers with a less than optimal solution. Our architecture will meet customers’ evolving needs in a way that until now no one thought possible.”

“We are building an organization solely dedicated to eliminating health inequities,” said Robby Knight, Soda Health co-founder and CEO. “We accomplish that by making the health care transaction and experience more like retail purchases using debit cards.” Knight is joined by co-founders Daryl Risinger, Jared Dauman and Chris Brown.

Soda Health is addressing longstanding challenges to provide reimbursement for goods and services critical to achieving and maintaining good health, but which are not supported by traditional medical claims. In many cases, an individual’s lack of financial resources becomes an obstacle to accessing these benefits. In its creation of health care-centric payments and related solutions, Soda Health will ensure consumers have easier access to their benefits. At the same time, health plans will have a technology platform which can more cost-effectively administer benefits.

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“Sustained engagement is critical to identifying and eliminating health inequities,” said Lynne Chou O’Keefe, Founder and Managing Partner of Define Ventures. “Define Ventures is confident in Soda Health’s approach to reduce customer friction, increase utilization and engagement and ultimately define healthcare.”

“We need practical solutions that address health inequities, this is an area where all stakeholders across the healthcare system are aligned,” said Ling Wong, Senior Advisor with Lightspeed Venture Partners. “There’s a huge opportunity for technology to streamline and modernize benefits programs to better serve patients and payers. At Lightspeed we believe Robby and the team at Soda Health have the passion, experience and insights to deliver on their mission to improve healthcare.”

The addressable market opportunity to support these types of transactions continues to rapidly increase as illustrated by the nearly 20 million Medicare Advantage beneficiaries with supplemental benefits which cover the purchase of over-the-counter medications and other wellness items. As an organization purpose-built around the unique needs of the healthcare industry, Soda Health is positioned to design an experience that meets the needs of health care consumer while assisting health plans in achieving their goals for improving population health.

Knight concluded, “Until now, the healthcare industry has relied on legacy payments technologies which have left both health plans and consumers with a less than optimal solution. Our architecture will meet customers’ evolving needs in a way that until now no one thought possible.”

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