League Raises $62 Million to Expand Health Benefits Market
One of Canada’s most recognizable health startups has picked up a massive new round to continue expanding their digital platform.
League announced a $62 million funding round led by TELUS Ventures, with Wittington Ventures also joining the round. Existing investors including OMERS, Infinite Potential Group, RBC Ventures, Real Ventures and BDC Ventures were also part of the raise.
The Toronto-based company is a digital health benefits platform curated for modern workforces that can offer companies an edge when it comes to bringing on new talent. This comes from League’s ability to help companies of almost any size better manage their healthcare costs while also putting employee health back into the hands of the worker. Aside from offering health insurance, League can provide flexible spending accounts, educational health content and journeys, and on-demand support from trained professionals.
“Employers experiencing the war for talent, skyrocketing healthcare costs, and the mental health epidemic are rapidly recognizing that a new approach to benefits will give them a competitive advantage,” said Mike Serbinis, League’s founder and CEO. “Health benefits represent a tremendous opportunity to improve the lives and health outcomes for employees, but they’re not currently driving the business value employers should expect from their investment. League gives them greater control over their spend while delivering an unparalleled employee experience that maximizes both health and productivity.”
This newest round will help League maintain their torrid pace of growth around the world through the opening of offices in London, San Francisco and New York. League began U.S. operations last year and has since been licensed to operate in all 50 states. Next year will be a big one for the company, as League plans to launch U.K. and EU operations in 2019.
“Our focus on building a consumer-centric benefits platform is resonating with companies across the country that want to see their employee health plans actually make a positive change for their teams,” said Brian Ancell, U.S. president for League. “Based on a Net Promoter Score of 75 (versus an industry standard of eight) and monthly engagement that rivals most social networks, League has the potential to bend the cost curve in healthcare.”
In addition to the new offices and locations, the funding will help build out League’s platform even further through an expanded benefits cloud, a deeper roster of benefits providers and specific micro-benefits, and an adherence to growing the automation of the platform.
Founded in 2014, League has grown to include massive names like Uber, Shopify and Unilever as customers. League’s goal is to bring the same level of personalization and disruption to the health and benefits markets that many other startups have done to the media and retail worlds.
“Our view is the traditional sales, services and experience models are gone the way of the dodo,” Serbinis told Techivbes late last year. “Our company either is going to grow or die… So we’re going to become more personalized and we’re going to launch new services that continue to take the one-size fits none model out of health care.”
It’s clear that since then, Serbinis’ company has taken that growth route pretty seriously.
