GenAI underwrites changes to VC-backed Medicare navigation sector

As genAI underwrites massive changes to the venture-backed Medicare navigation sector, some companies are thriving while others are pivoting or changing focus.

Case in point: Newly horned unicorn Chapter scored a $75 million Series D this week as it avoids direct-to-consumer marketing and looks to expand beyond Medicare.

• Its peers aren't faring as well. SeekMedicare, a Medicare navigation business spun out of Clover Health in 2020, no longer has a website. Fair Square Medicare last year unveiled a new business focused on AI voice agents.

What they're saying: "We're growing roughly 4x a year," Chapter CEO Cobi Blumenfeld-Gantz tells Axios. We want "to take the trust and the experience we've built and expand beyond Medicare."

Inside the room: The fresh funds give the company a runway of 10+ years, per Blumenfeld-Gantz, who added that it is using "a lot of AI" to boost quality control and compliance while hiring fewer human advisors over time.

• GenAI is "very valuable in making humans more effective," he says, adding that while the company grew 4x over last year, it only scaled its advisor team by half that.

Zoom out: Blumenfeld-Gantz also sees recent political shifts as advantageous to the business, with recent Senate Finance Committee updates to Medicare mirroring the recommendations the company had previously lobbied for.

• "From everything I can tell the new administration is actually very excited to try to implement technology to make things better and try to align incentives better with consumers. So I'm happy."

Catch up quick: Chapter, co-founded by Palantir alums and right wing political figure Vivek Ramaswamy, raised a $50 million Series C last May.