As an investor, and particularly an investor at Anthemis, I feel fortunate to be able to back companies that work to solve the world’s most complex problems. From wildfires to agricultural commodities prices to the solvency of the economy’s SME back-bone to insuring electric fleets, these urgent issues are attracting formidable startup talent.

We are delighted to announce our investment in UnifiHealth, a health tech company focused on building scalable, affordable healthcare coverage for small businesses.

As an expat, I find the problem of the wasteful, inequitable U.S. healthcare system high on the list of pressing challenges, and in need of the attention of a fantastic team. UnifiHealth helps small businesses provide the highest quality healthcare options for their employees by allowing them to choose their preferred method of primary care, select their provider or facility of choice and identify the highest quality providers at the best cost.

At Anthemis, we tend to focus on the intersection of financial services and healthcare, working with companies addressing tricky issues like payments and insurance.

Focused on better serving the more than 31 million underserved small businesses in the US, UnifiHealth delivers on both reduced cost and better healthcare options. UnifiHealth allows small employers to take advantage of the opportunity to offer a health plan that the largest companies would be envious of. UnifiHealth offers a smart network and innovative stop-loss to protect against uncapped financial exposure. Through extensive data analysis, patients will have transparency and recommendations for providers from an expertise and cost perspective, delivered directly via a user-friendly app.

To an outsider, the shock of U.S. healthcare begins with pricing. As the New York Times reported earlier this year, insurers tend to do a poor job negotiating on behalf of patients, a practice facilitated by health systems, who do not provide firm pricing guidance.

Choice is another pain point for patients in the US. Because people primarily rely on their employers for their healthcare plans, patients are linked to a specific network of practitioners. The network is not based on price, proximity to the patient or expertise, but rather the network the insurer has designed around its own needs.

Unifi brings to the healthcare space a number of qualities we have seen across the fintech and insurtech landscapes: transactional experiences embedded in fundamentally additive, user-centric journeys. These experiences are underpinned by a new method for pricing healthcare services and a different type of network, which gives users what they really want – transparent prices and a frustration-free search for the right care.

Fixing something as wide-reaching and entrenched as US healthcare for SMEs will require absolutely stellar talent. Most exciting for me as an investor is Unifi’s expert and tenacious team. Ross, Olivia and Brodie share the passion, experience and intensity needed to disrupt this space. To learn more, visit https://www.unifihealth.com.