SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lively, Inc., creators of the modern Health Savings Account (HSA), today announced it has raised $11M in Series A funding, led by Costanoa Ventures. Costanoa’s partner Mark Selcow will join Lively’s Board of Directors. Other investors include Y Combinator, Point Judith Capital, and Transmedia Capital.
The funding will allow Lively to accelerate its growth, expand its free consumer HSA offering, and further expand into the employer market.
“Health Savings Accounts have been around for a long time, but Lively has built a contemporary, intuitive product around the consumer and their spending, saving, and investing needs. It's a superior product in a market that's ripe for innovation,” said Selcow. “The Lively product is invaluable to anyone with a High-Deductible Health Plan.”
To meet the growing demand, Lively has also hired Kirk Hoewisch as Executive Vice President of Sales & Business Development. Kirk brings more than 15 years of HSA experience, including the founding of HSA Bank (acquired by Webster Bank).
“We believe every American should have access to tools that enable them to save for healthcare. This funding allows us to continue enhancing our product so we can provide more options for consumers across the country,” said Alex Cyriac, Lively Co-Founder and CEO. “Kirk is not just an industry veteran, he is one of the early pioneers of the entire HSA industry, and his expertise will help us continue to build effective products that put more savings in our users’ pockets.”
Hoewisch has seen the HSA space grow from its inception and knows first-hand the value of a modern and consumer-first HSA experience.
“I’m excited to start this new adventure as part of the Lively team,” said Hoewisch. “Lively’s impressive technology and passion for the end-consumer was a combination that I couldn’t pass up, and I’m eager to help Lively expand on their already impressive growth and innovation.”
Lively this year launched two new features: investments through the TD Ameritrade Self-Directed Brokerage Accounts (SDBA) platform, allowing users to invest their health savings in ETFs, stocks, bonds, and mutual funds available through TD Ameritrade, among the nation’s largest brokerage companies; and a new HSA marketplace that combines the tax-free spending power of an HSA with more cost-effective and convenient options for account holders, in addition to exclusive discounts on qualified medical expenses.
Lively’s team has deep experience in healthcare, payments, and customer service, all who have a passion for making it easier to save and spend your healthcare dollars.
"Alex and Shobin are a strong founding team. When they came to Y Combinator with Lively, they had a great idea and executed excellently,” said Dalton Caldwell, Managing Partner at Y Combinator. “We believe they will have a big impact on American healthcare, and we're happy to have helped them at the beginning and continue helping them on their journey."
According to a recent survey by the National Business Group on Health, more than nine in 10 employers expect to offer high-deductible health plans in 2019. Devenir projects that by the end of 2020 the HSA market will approach $75 billion in HSA assets, covering more than 29 million accounts.
Lively meets this growing need by combining their healthcare expertise with a modern HSA experience to provide a free consumer HSA with no hidden fees. This is on top of their employer-sponsored HSA, which automates the manual and tedious tasks of all aspects of an employer’s HSA administration. This unique market offering built with the end-user in mind will allow more Americans with high deductible health plans to harness the financial opportunity offered by HSAs now and into their retirement.
About Lively
Lively is a modern Health Savings Account (HSA) platform for employers and individuals. Lively’s user-centric solution creates an intuitive user experience allowing consumers to get the most out of their HSA. Lively HSAs work alongside HSA compatible plans to make healthcare easier for everyone. Lively was started to help consumers optimize their healthcare spending, maximize their savings, and better their livelihood. Founded by Alex Cyriac and Shobin Uralil, Lively is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. For more information please visit Livelyme.com or follow us on Twitter (@LivelyHSA).
Lively and TD Ameritrade Institutional are separate and unaffiliated firms.