JPMorgan Chase’s Morgan Health unit will invest in a company called Venteur to enhance the venture’s efforts to offer health plans to small and medium-sized U.S. businesses. In the image is The JP Morgan Chase & Co. headquarters in New York, US, on Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg)
JPMorgan Chase’s Morgan Health unit will invest in a company called Venteur to boost the venture’s effort to sell health plans to small and medium-sized U.S. businesses, the companies disclosed Tuesday.
Venteur sees a growing market of health plans known as “individual coverage health reimbursement arrangements” that became widely available during last fall’s open enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act. According to the federal government’s website, such ICHRAs are “an alternative to offering a traditional group health plan to employees.”
“It’s a specific account-based health plan that allows employers to provide defined non-taxed reimbursements to employees for qualified medical expenses, including monthly premiums and out-of-pocket costs, like copayments and deductibles,” the healthcare.gov website says. “Employees must be enrolled in individual health insurance coverage (like a plan they bought through the Marketplace) to use the funds.”
Venteur “provides ICHRA plans through a platform that enables employers to offer their employees a tax-free allowance to purchase health insurance plans on the individual marketplace,” Morgan Health said in announcement Tuesday. “This structure allows employees to select portable health care coverage that is specifically suited to them – akin to the concept of 401(k) plans for retirement savings.”
Morgan Health’s $5 million investment is part of a “$20 million Series A funding round” that also includes Informed Ventures, American Family Ventures, Catalyst by Wellstar and Ingeborg Investments. Venteur said current investors Plug and Play, Techstars, Revelry Venture Partners, and Houghton Street Ventures also participated in the round, Venteur said. Apart from Morgan Health’s stake, specific investment amounts of the other partners weren’t disclosed.
Morgan Health chief executive officer Dan Mendelson said Venteur currently “serves over 600 employers – accounting for 30,000 lives – and has steadily grown its customer base since 2021 due to its leading, data-enabled platform and its proven ability to reduce costs.”
Venteur faces competition from larger and more established players like Centene, one of the nation’s largest providers of individual coverage under the ACA, and Oscar Health. Both companies have prioritized ICHRA plans this year.
The latest investment will allow Venteur to expand into new markets, according to the company’s top executive.
“The healthcare system is at a tipping point — accessibility and affordability have never been more critical,” Venteur chief executive Stacy Edgar said. “With this funding, Venteur is poised to scale our platform and bring personalized, flexible health insurance solutions to more businesses and employees than ever before.”
