We’re excited to share news of our most recent milestone as we continue to revolutionize healthcare access for SMEs in the Philippines. We raised US$6.5 million in Pre-Series A funding, and we’re excited to tell you what this means for the future of healthcare in the Philippines and beyond.
We’re grateful to be supported by investors hailing from a variety of backgrounds who care deeply about the mission we have set out to achieve. Key investors of the fundraise included Sy family-backed Gentree Fund and global VC firm BEENEXT. Other institutional investors include Y Combinator, The Graduate Syndicate, Amasia, and Oak Drive Ventures. Angel investors include David Wells (former CFO of Netflix and the Chairman of Wise), Lee Kheng Nam (former Deputy Chairman of Temasek subsidiary Vertex Holdings), Natasha Reyes (former owner of HMO Health Plan Philippines Inc.), and Dr. Edwin Mercado (founder of one of the largest healthcare systems in the Philippines now part of the Healthway Qualimed network).
We’ve seen that SMEs love what we’ve built, and now we want to reach more lives, specifically by supporting the underserved SME market in the Philippines. The fresh funds will help us grow our mission-driven team, expand our already extensive nationwide network of healthcare providers, and invest in our technology platform and operations. All these in turn will further elevate the patient healthcare experience at affordable costs for employers and employees.
Our journey began as classmates at Harvard and Stanford Universities pursuing dual MBA and MPA-International Development degrees. While researching our masters thesis during the pandemic, we were shocked to learn that out of 110M population, less than 10% had access to comprehensive health coverage beyond PhilHealth and over 50% of healthcare costs are still paid out-of-pocket, resulting in more than 1.5M Filipinos falling into poverty each year.
We realized that while health insurance is extremely inaccessible in developing countries like the Philippines, we had an opportunity to leverage our unique backgrounds in fintech, data, and public-private partnership to solve this problem. We set out to change the status quo by questioning what we have experienced ourselves: Why do health plans in the Philippines barely cover critical illnesses or services like mental health and medicine? Why do we need to wait for hours just to get a Letter of Authorization (LOA) to see a doctor? Why is customer service often out of reach?
Fast forward three years, we’re incredibly proud of our team’s progress towards realizing our vision of expanding access to affordable, quality healthcare. Hive Health is now a full-stack digital health insurer, offering hassle-free, comprehensive Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) health plans for SMEs and startups, encompassing outpatient, inpatient, emergency, and dental care through an extensive nationwide network of 1,700 hospitals and clinics, and over 60,000 doctors across locations.
Prior to this raise, Hive Health made history by being the first startup to acquire one of the pioneering HMO insurance companies in the Philippines, Health Plan Philippines, Inc. (HPPI), securing a full insurance license and now 38-year nationwide provider network.
Read about it here: Introduction to Hive Health at our Media Launch (2023)
Here at Hive Health, we offer innovative, inclusive benefits such as mental health, medicine, and LGBTQIA+ partner coverage. Our digital platform empowers patients to manage their care easily through our one-of-a-kind vertically integrated telehealth and care coordination model that bridges virtual and in-person care. Companies can use our HR dashboard to centrally manage plan enrollments, invoices, and understand employee wellness. We’ve also developed our own Electronic Medical Records system and integrated provider portal that facilitates transparent claims management and faster payouts for our partner doctors and clinics.
Change in healthcare is notoriously slow, but our “test fast and fix things” approach has shown promising results. The new round of funding will help us accelerate this further. We have not only iteratively innovated on the traditional aspects of health insurance administration but now are increasingly working towards our ultimate goal of transforming the total patient experience through changing care delivery models. We’ve also built robust foundations over the past three years and plan to lead the industry in adopting new technologies such as generative AI and machine learning predictive analytics.
With the growing competition for talent, we’re grateful for the largely word-of-mouth organic growth with SMEs approaching us to provide best-in-class benefits for their teams. From our launch in 2021, we now serve hundreds of small and medium businesses and have grown our client base 8x in the past year alone. Beyond providing holistic healthcare for employees, we’ve heard from employers how critical one’s HMO is for talent acquisition and retention.
Here’s what our customers and patients are saying about Hive Health:
“We're seeing the trend now when people apply for companies. They don't only look at how much money they're getting, how big their salary is, but how holistic the package being offered to them is. We make sure that we partner with the right people, with the right benefit partners, and that's why we chose to partner with Hive Health.”
- Sam Tangco, Chief Operating Officer of Five Story Group of Companies
“As HR, I've been able to delegate myself and clone myself multiple times through Hive Health's portal, wherein the employees can already do or book their healthcare needs. It’s empowering the members in taking care of themselves because they know that the HMO, which is Hive, is there.”
- Sheilo Matibag, Human Resources and Administrative Manager of HEPMIL
“I wanted to [know if I had] ADHD, and true enough, I got diagnosed and was prescribed meds during my first session. In our second session, we checked if my meds worked, and it did!] I'm so happy Hive Health will be forever part of this pivotal moment in my life. Your logistics and reminders are flawless. Thank you.”
- Hive Health patient who shared how our mental health coverage changed their life
And here are a few words shared by our investors:
"We see immense potential in Hive Health's innovative approach to transforming healthcare for SMEs. Leveraging our extensive local consumer knowledge and operational expertise, we are confident in Hive Health's ability to cement its market leadership in the SME space and drive significant positive change in the Philippine market. We are excited to support their journey."
- Mark Sng, representing the third generation SM conglomerate Sy family’s Gentree Fund
“From the first time we met, I’ve seen how Hive Health has consistently executed on their vision of transforming the way healthcare is experienced by building a full-stack health insurtech company. The BEENEXT team, with our global experience spanning health insurtech and other industries, is excited to support their next phase of growth. We believe that they can create a legendary long-lasting company."
- Dirk van Quaquebeke, Managing Partner at BEENEXT
We’re excited about the journey ahead and are just getting started. Learn more about what Hive Health has to offer here, and book a call today.
If you’re interested in joining our superstar mission-driven team, learn more here.
Camille & Jiawen
Co-Founders of Hive Health
