Cedar Raises $102M For Simplified Patient Medical Payments

Cedar, a provider of technology focused on fostering smooth financial interactions between healthcare providers and patients, announced $102 million in new venture capital funding and a new business relationship with a provider network on Monday (June 22).

New York City-based Cedar said Andreessen Horowitz led the $102 million Series C funding round. In addition to $77 million in venture capital from the Menlo Park, Calif.-based venture capital firm, the round also includes $25 million in venture debt from J.P. Morgan, Cedar said.

The latest round brings Cedar’s total capital raised sum to $157 million, the company said. The company has about 120 employees and was founded in 2016, a spokeswoman said in an interview.

Cedar also announced what it called an “innovation partnership” with Novant Health.

Winston, N.C.-based Novant is a nonprofit network consisting of more than 1,500 physicians and 15 medical centers in North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina, according to its 2018 audited financial statements.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on many of the inefficiencies and archaic processes across our current healthcare system which has, in turn, driven an increase in the adoption of platforms like Cedar’s among healthcare providers,” Florian Otto, CEO and co-founder of Cedar, said in a prepared statement. “Through this round of funding and our new partnership with Novant Health, Cedar’s patient engagement and payment technology platform will be able to offer an improved experience for more patients with simplified and personalized digital engagement strategies and payment support options. We’re very pleased with this strong show of support from our investors and partners, and look forward to further enhancing our platform for patients and providers.”

Scott Kupor, Andreessen Horowitz managing partner and now a member of Cedar’s board of directors, said in a blog post on the venture capital firm’s site that companies like Cedar are needed because the medical billing process “is needlessly complicated, frustrating, expensive, fraught with delays, unhelpful in managing overall medical care costs and a hindrance to everyone involved: patients, health systems, and insurance companies.”

“Cedar brings a patient-centric and platform-enabled solution to this problem,” he added.

Kupor said Cedar not only helps clarify billing but is developing tools “to arm patients pre-procedure with the information and self-service they need to avoid the sticker-shock when the medical bill arrives many weeks post-procedure.”

Andreessen Horowitz and J.P. Morgan were joined in the latest investment round in Cedar by Kaiser Permanente and angel investors including Jerod Mayo, linebacker coach for the New England Patriots ​and Dr. Jeff Vacirca, CEO of New York Cancer & Blood Specialists, ​Kinnevik, Thrive Capital, Lakestar and Founders Fund, Cedar said in its announcement.