Joseph Kitonga
Vitable Health
The average of 30 million people younger than 65 were without insurance according to data collected by the ASPE Office of Health Policy six months into 2020. Within the same year, it was reported that 28% of adults were underinsured through employer-provided coverage. Pennsylvania-based Vitable Health aims to change that by giving employers a more cost-effective way to give their employees and their families healthcare. “As the pandemic brought healthcare to the forefront of both employees and employers – especially hourly workers,” says founder and CEO Joseph Kitonga, 24. “Oftentimes, we’re stuck uninsured without access to affordable health benefits, and employers were really looking for affordable options. There weren’t many except us.”
Vitable Health announced Thursday that it has raised $7.2 million in a recent funding round to improve it’s app as it launches its mental health services as well as increase its number of practitioners as it expands to new regions. Investors in the round include First Round Capital as well as angel investors CEO of Lattice Jack Altman, managing director at Y Combinator Michael Seibel, senior vice president of business at GoPuff Daniel Folkman, cofounder of Cityblock Health Toyin Ajayi and others.
By paying a monthly $50 fee per employee (far lower than the average price of $495 a month for insurance nationally), Vitable Health’s coverage includes primary, chronic and urgent care as well as sexual health and women’s health amongst other services. In addition, Vitable has a network of providers who can have appointments in the patient’s home or virtually.
“That’s always been the model,” Kitonga says. “We’re able to deliver our concierge premium experience at a substantially lower price. That’s part of why we’re about 10 times more affordable than traditional health insurances.” Kitonga dropped out of Penn State in order to found Vitable Health in January 2020. He was inspired by the struggles he saw his parents deal with as he matured. Immigrating from Kenya with his family at 13, Kitonga’s parents founded their own small homecare company where caregivers would take care of senior citizens, but saw that their employees “made too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little to afford comprehensive health insurance,” Kitonga said.
Since the company was established, it has accumulated almost 10,000 members within the Philadelphia and Delaware area. The new round of funding will enable that growth to continue, Kitonga says, adding: “We’re going to continue to not only invest in the product that we built and expand to more markets in the North East.”
One of the company’s lead investors, First Round Capital has invested in companies such as Rupa Health, Notable Labs and more in the past, but “the ability to provide a level of primary care and urgent both at home and at work for employees and their families I think is so critical,” says First Round Capital founding partner Josh Kopelman, who joined the board of Vitable Health when this round of funding closed.
Kopelman previously served on the board of Clover Health and hopes to bring the experience to Vitable. “We saw the product need massively and how the current system is providing a real gap in care. Vitable fills a massive gap and could really elevate the quality of care,” he adds.
“Even though we’re very early in our journey, we’ve hit a nerve where hourly workers have underserved for so long,” Kitonga says.” Not only does it present a great business opportunity, but while we do that, we’re providing incredible value for a population that’s been underserved.”
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