Philadelphia, PA (July 19, 2024) - Vitable, an enhanced Direct Primary Care company working with SMB employers to deliver affordable, high-quality healthcare to hourly workers, today announced it has raised a $16M Series A led by Cherryrock Capital with participation from newark venture partners, Citi Impact Fund, First Round Capital, Commerce Ventures, and Y Combinator. Since its founding in 2020, Vitable has raised over $25M in venture capital.
Vitable plans to use the newly raised capital to rapidly expand into new states while further strengthening the coverage of their enhanced Direct Primary Care plan and ACA compliance solutions. The company hopes to be available in over 40 states shortly, and has already leveraged the new funding to launch Vitable in Florida earlier this month with Texas and Ohio to follow shortly. Vitable will also continue to invest in growing their primary care and care navigation capabilities to support self-insured employers.
Founded by Joseph Kitonga, Vitable was developed to fill the healthcare gap for working families who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford comprehensive health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs.
Kitonga is a former Thiel Fellow, Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, and Y Combinator alum. He grew up helping his parents bootstrap a home healthcare agency after immigrating from Kenya. One of the challenges the business faced was finding a healthcare plan that was affordable for hourly employees, where many workers lived without any coverage at all. Too often he noticed employees forced to rely on the ER and urgent care for basic care, continuing the cycle of debt and making upward mobility very difficult.
After coming across a study that highlighted how access to high-quality primary care can impact 20-year difference in the average life expectancy within two neighborhoods less than 5 miles apart, Kitonga decided to do something about it. At the age of 21, he turned down a full-time offer at Microsoft as a software engineer and left school to build Vitable full-time as a way to increase access to high-quality care for hourly employees.
Kitonga said, “31.9% of the American workforce, or 51.9 million workers, makes less than $15 per hour. Many are stuck making too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little to afford traditional health insurance, leaving them under or uninsured. And unfortunately most innovative healthcare companies today fail to address these underserved communities. That’s why Vitable started with a focus on small business and hourly employees and our solutions remain tailored to their unique needs. Delivering truly affordable preventive and primary care along with free prescriptions and mental health coverage to expand access to care for the American workforce.”
Vitable’s subscription-based primary care model costs employers just $1 a day, and in turn employees and their dependents get free access to delightful in-home and virtual primary care visits from a dedicated team of providers without any copays or deductibles. Vitable membership also includes over 1,000 free prescriptions, common lab tests, mental health programs, and care navigation services. All these services are easily accessible through Vitable’s mobile app.
“Vitable has a big opportunity to positively impact individuals and families in the U.S. by providing new, more affordable healthcare options for shift workers and those working in small businesses,” said Ryan Alam, SVP, Principal, Citi Impact Fund. “At the Citi Impact Fund, we are excited to invest in the Vitable team and look forward to seeing them continue to develop innovative solutions to address health access for low-income households.”
Today, Vitable covers over 50,000 lives across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois, Delaware, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Florida. Their customers consist largely of small and medium businesses with a large mix of hourly workers as well as self-insured employers looking to contain rising healthcare costs.
About Vitable:
Vitable is an enhanced Direct Primary Care health benefit for employers of hourly workers. Delivering easy access to high-quality primary care and mental health coverage to under- and uninsured American workforce. Vitable membership includes in-home and virtual primary care visits, free prescriptions, labs, and mental health programs with no out-of-pocket cost for the members.
