Twitter and Flickr/number10gov
Clockwise from top left: Kevin Nazemi, Josh Kushner, and Mario Schlosser
Oscar Health Insurance, a New York-based startup trying to bring modern tech thinking into the health insurance industry, is in talks to raise a round of funding that would value it at more than $1 billion, according to Bloomberg.
We don't know yet who would be participating in this round, but famed investor Peter Thiel's Founders Fund led an early $30 million round of funding in January of last year.
A few months later in May, Oscar closed an $80 million round of funding at a valuation of just under $1 billion, led by Joe Lonsdale of Formation8 and including Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst Partners, and others. Its total funding sits at $150 million.
The way Oscar Health Insurance competes with the established markets is pretty straightforward: Customers in New York and New Jersey can buy their coverage from the marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. Their website is slicker than the competition and lets its customers consult with doctors over the phone for free.
Oscar was founded by venture capitalist Joshua Kushner, an ex-Microsoft exec named Kevin Nazemi, and current CEO Mario Schlosser. Oscar was founded in July 2013, making the company a little less than two years old.
If true, this report would make Oscar Health Insurance the second member of the so-called Unicorn Club of startups that have raised $1 billion this week alone, after Sprinklr announced its own round of funding.