Exclusive: Brex alums debut Opkit, insurance tools for telehealth

Two early Brex engineers launched Opkit, an insurance verification platform for telehealth companies, and closed a seed round, CEO Sherwood Callaway tells Axios exclusively.

Why it matters: As digital health booms, infrastructure building startups are tackling health care's outdated administrative issues from a variety of angles.

Details: The New York-based startup collected $1 million in seed funding from Global Founders Capital, Mischief, Socially Financed, Y Combinator and former Andreessen Horowitz partner Rex Salisbury, Callaway says.

• The company will use the funds to hire engineers and other staff. He declined to say when the company plans to raise a Series A.

How it works: Opkit's automated web portal helps virtual care practices verify and gather details on patients' insurance coverage including determining whether a plan is active, in- or out-of-network, and whether it includes copays or deductibles.

• The company charges users a monthly fee on an annual contract basis and offers tiered usage rates based on the number of eligibility checks and the number of users with access.
• The full Opkit process — from uploading insurance cards to verifying eligibility requirements — takes roughly 5-10 minutes, he says.

Context: The company is currently piloting its offering with two growth-stage telehealth companies, per Callaway.

What they're saying: "Many of the providers we serve didn’t exist several years ago," says Callaway. "The tooling needs to catch up."

State of play: Opkit and other infrastructure building startups offer services ranging from streamlining treatment approvals to handling bookkeeping and payroll tasks to helping organizations build custom health plans.

• Custom health plan builder Flume Health last March raised $30 million in Series A funding at a $100 million valuation.
• Rhyme, a startup focused on streamlining prior authorizations, last February collected $25 million.
• Heard, a startup that handles administrative tasks for behavioral health providers, last May pulled in $10 million in Series A capital.