Lively<\/a> co-founder Shobin Uralil likes to describe the health savings account as the \u201c401(k) for healthcare\u201d \u2014 but that it\u2019s woefully underused as an investment vehicle like a 401(k).<\/p>\nSo instead of just relying on it as a way to pay for healthcare, Uralil and his co-founder Alex Cyriac set out to build a way to not only help people start up health savings accounts, but also help them consider them in the same vein as other kinds of investments.\u00a0Today, Lively said it is adding investment capabilities with an integration with TD Ameritrade, which will be available to all Lively HSA holders. The hope is that Lively will introduce a kind of investment that\u2019s been available to the traditional finance community, but in a more seamless way in order to continue growing into a one-stop shop for HSA.
\u201cThe beauty of the HSA, with an HSA you can access the money at any time if you\u2019re using it for qualified medical expenses,\u201d Uralil said. \u201cThe 401(k), if you access your money before retirement, you get dinged.\u00a0 If you think about it, I would argue that if you are eligible to open an HSA you would want to max out your contribution before your 401k. It grows through investments tax-free just like a 401(k), but unlike that, you can access your HSA money at any time.\u201d<\/p>\n
To get all this done, Lively also said it has raised $4.2 million in financing from investors that include Transmedia Capital, Streamlined Ventures, Y Combinator, SV Angel, Kevin Durant and Rich Kleinman\u2019s The Durant Company and a laundry list of others. (We\u2019ll include said laundry list at the bottom of the post.)<\/p>\n
\u201cMore and more people just can\u2019t afford your traditional low-deductible HMO and PPO plans,\u201d co-founder\u00a0Shobin Uralil said. \u201cAs that happens, the increase and the rise in popularity of the HSA has also seen that trend. We talked to people and they kept saying, I feel like I\u2019m getting nickel-and-dimed, I can\u2019t get my money out when I need it most. [They would say] nobody seems to want to help me save for the future. That, coupled with our personal experiences, made us decide.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Lively aims to give users the ability to open up a health savings account with a high deductible health plan, and make it easier to get that money in and out of the account to pay for deductibles. Lively boils down to two products: a tool for employers to give their employees health savings accounts and manage contributions and payroll; and an account for end-users that\u2019s free to set up and get an HSA up and running. The most important part of the latter half, though, was ensuring that it was easy to get money out to pay for health care without any hassle, Cyriac said.<\/p>\n
The most important part of the latter half, though, was ensuring that it was easy to get money out to pay for health care without any hassle, Cyriac said. The company offers a Lively-issued debit card \u2014 something not new to the market, he said \u2014 but also looks to ensure that users see refunds when they pay without using an explicit method required by a bank or even Lively. The aim is to help individuals feel like they are the account holder, and not their employer, even if they end up leaving their jobs or switching to new ones.<\/p>\n
There are also some competitors in the area, such as HealthEquity, and other products owned by health insurers like United Healthcare. As health insurance costs become an increasingly big question going forward, optimizing a health savings account is going to be a big focus for some of these bigger players, Uralil said. But the hope is that the company will be able to outmaneuver them by creating a tool not only for the end user, but also employers and other organizations.<\/p>\n
I think we\u2019re looking at this as an end-to-end type of solution and experience,\u201d Cyriac said. \u201cIf you look at the current industry, it\u2019s kind of concentrated. It\u2019s a space dominated by banks and other financial institutions. You have thousands of banks, credit unions, third-party admins. That represents the long-fragmented tail of providers in the space. Our goal is not only to transform the experience on the front-end, but it\u2019s the streamline in ways that most providers aren\u2019t thinking, but on the operational back-end.\u201d<\/p>\n
For those that got all the way to the bottom here, this is the full list of investors in Lively: Streamlined Ventures,\u00a0Transmedia Capital,\u00a0Y Combinator,\u00a0SV Angel,\u00a0PJC,\u00a0The Durant Company,\u00a0Liquid 2 Ventures,\u00a0Haystack Partners,\u00a0Paul Buchheit,\u00a0Isaac Oates,\u00a0Frederic Kerrest,\u00a0 Jeff Epstein, and \u201cothers.\u201d<\/p>\n
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