2024-01-19 13:28:52
Genial Care — a startup that works to treat children with autism — has just raised R$35 million in a round led by General Catalyst, the American venture capital manager specializing in healthtechs.
The round will allow Genial Care to double its number of clinics, opening five more and reaching ten units in São Paulo at the end of this year.
The funding comes at a positive time for the startup, with health plans looking for alternatives to reduce their costs with autism treatment following the ANS included the condition in the list of mandatory treatments.
Two weeks ago, the Brazilian Association of Health Plans (Abramge) published research showing that last year the cost of autism treatments exceeded the cost of cancer, historically the main cost of health plans.
According to this study, treatments for autism and other pervasive developmental disorders accounted for 9% of medical costs, compared to 8.7% for cancer.
“This happens because most clinics in Brazil today are small, without technology and without adherence to protocols and standards of good practice,” said Genial Care founder Kenny Laplante, an American who moved to Brazil in 2017 following to marry a Brazilian.
With Genial Care, Kenny is trying to replicate in Brazil a thesis he developed in the United States, when he worked as a private equity investor at General Atlantic.
At the time, around 2015, he invested in ACES, a startup that has a model similar to Genial Care — but less turbocharged.
“Genial Care is a step forward from what we did with ACES, as ACES did not have much investment in technology and did not have the training of therapists, which is very important,” he said.
Genial Care creates its clinics — generally with 15 to 20 treatment rooms — and works with partner therapists who provide care to children. Before working with the startup, these therapists need to undergo training on Genial Academy, the company’s online course platform.
To grow, the startup has basically focused on health plans, which currently account for more than 90% of the company’s revenue. It works with plans such as CarePlus, Porto Seguro, Amil One, Alice and Unimed, which together have more than 1 million lives covered.
Kenny said that Genial Care is in negotiations with five other plans and intends to double the number of lives covered throughout this year.
For plans, the great benefit of working with Genial Care is reduced costs and greater predictability.
According to the founder, while traditional clinics usually provide 40 hours of therapy per week with autistic children, Genial Care clinics provide an average of 10 hours of treatment per week per patient.
“We do less, and with better results,” said the entrepreneur. “In addition to protocols, we are using AI algorithms to help therapists provide the best quality and efficiency possible.”
Another advantage for the plans is that Genial Care prices on a risk-sharing model.
She charges a fixed price for the plan that is determined according to the level of support the child will need. “If the real cost of care is higher than that, we will bear the difference. If it’s smaller, we also get the extra. It’s a way to align incentives and increase confidence in what we’re doing.”
Today’s round was funded basically by investors who were already in the cap table yes Brilliant Which.
In addition to General Catalyst, which had led the startup’s Series A in January last year, Atlântico, Canary, IKS and SSV participated in the fundraising, as well as angel investors Mauro Figueiredo (the former CEO of Fleury and Odontoprev) , and João Alceu Amoroso Lima (former president of Fenasaúde and former CEO of Qualicorp and SulAmérica).
Kenny said that the round will allow the startup to have momentum to reach the breakevenwhich is expected to happen in early 2025.
To do this, it basically needs more scale. The entrepreneur explains that the operation’s EBITDA margin (excluding fixed overhead expenses) is already positive.
As the company grows, overhead expenses will be diluted, taking the balance sheet into the black.
Pedro Arbex
1705794103
#Autism #costs #cancer #health #plans #Genial #Care #change
