Mexican startup Welbe Care, which offers companies a health platform for their employees through a membership, raised US$5 million in a seed round led by Brazilian fund Volpe Capital and Mexico’s Nazca. SVLC, Kortex, and GreenRock also participated.
With the recent capital, Welbe Care, also known as Welbe, accumulates US$7.1 million in financing. Eduardo Medeiros, CEO and co-founder of the company told Contxto that the new investment will focus on expanding the commercial area to position the brand, on acquiring new partners, and on the operational part to increase its services.
Medeiros said that Mexico is a country where much of the population does not have access to specialized health services. For this reason, he says, together with Marcus Paiva, they created Welbe as a “health full-service” by the end of 2021. (Both are Brazilian and previously worked together at the Brazilian travel startup ClickBus: Medeiros was CEO, and Paiva headed the Mexico company).
Welbe is a B2B platform that provides companies with a complete record of workers’ health data and enables them to comply with OHS regulations. With the platform, human resources areas can put employees in contact with general practitioners and specialists in Mexico. In addition, employees and their families can access check-ups, face-to-face or virtual medical consultations in up to seven different specialties, and laboratory tests.
Welbe charges companies from US$20 to US$150 per employee, depending on the plan.
“Welbe’s idea is to be the integrating agent of the different healthcare providers nationwide, from laboratories, insurers, health brokers, healthcare providers, pharmacies and specialists, and occupational physicians,” says the CEO.
Medeiros explained that they operate in Mexico City, Puebla, Querétaro, Monterrey, and Guadalajara and work with more than 33,000 physicians in the country, as well as with most of the laboratories in Mexico. They plan to reach Brazil in the future.
The healthtech started operations in January of this year and currently has 22 multinational clients from various industries, such as Henkel, Redbull, Engie, Enel, Jüsto, TUL, Grupo SOMA, WRI, Ansamex, among others. By January 2023, seven more clients have already been agreed upon, the CEO said.
For that same year, he stated that they expect to reach more than 250,000 benefited collaborators (they currently have close to 100,000) and increase their suppliers and brand positioning.
Regarding the future outlook for the industry, Medeiros commented that healthtech companies must offer solutions that are easy to access and have a value proposition, as well as interact as a whole. “Healthcare cannot function vertically but horizontally. We must grow as a single unit for the patient’s benefit,” he concluded.
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