Alphabet Inc., Google’s expansive parent company, is investing $375 million in the 6-year-old healthcare startup Oscar Health.
Co-founded by CEO Mario Schlosser and Josh Kushner (brother of Jared Kushner, the son-in-law and a top adviser to President Donald Trump), Oscar was valued at $3.2 billion before this latest investment, Bloomberg reports.
At Oscar’s start, Alphabet invested through its venture capital fund Capital G and its health sciences company, Verily. With Tuesday’s additional investment, the startup has more funding to expand and update infrastructure as they focus on the release of a new product, Medicare Advantage, in 2020. Salar Kamangar, the former CEO of YouTube, will also be joining Oscar’s board with this investment.
“Alphabet has come to the conclusion that they want to put more behind the company,” Schlosser told Wired. “It’s fantastic for us because it will really allow us to focus fully on the core model we’ve been building for the past six years, which is: use technology, use data, use design, use a human approach to build a very different health care experience. And that’s what this allows us to do.”
The healthcare company has been applauded for its tech-savvy, customer-oriented approach to health insurance, providing sensible health data to the customer. Oscar also offers phone calls with a doctor 24/7 and helps both individuals and businesses find insurance plans.
