Ram Sudireddy is the quintessential entrepreneur. When he sees an issue, he must determine why it exists — and one of the simplest ways to resolve it.
Having based and exited three startups (two within the chip/semiconductor trade and one in IT/catastrophe restoration), Sudireddy’s all the time looking out for a brand new drawback to resolve. About 5 years in the past he discovered his new calling when he took his son in for a dental appointment. He was shocked to obtain a major out-of-pocket invoice though he had dental insurance coverage for his household.
After digging in to determine how that may very well be, he found a scarcity of transparency within the trade and decided that dental insurance coverage isn’t actually what most individuals would contemplate insurance coverage. There is no such thing as a pooling of threat, and protection limits are very low in comparison with annual premiums.
The additional Sudireddy dug into dental insurance coverage, and the oral care trade generally, the extra inefficiencies he discovered. He determined to make the most of his engineering experience and entrepreneurial expertise to construct an answer to this pointless price on society and convey reasonably priced dental care to the plenty, beginning with the 80 million Individuals who work for small companies or within the gig economic system and are underserved by insurance coverage firms.
York IE is proud to announce that we invested in Sudireddy’s firm, Bento. York IE participated in Bento’s $8.1 million Sequence A that was led by Schooner Capital with extra participation from Companyon Ventures and strategic angels.
The Bento Workforce
Sudireddy leads a rising crew of 30 staff on their mission to disrupt dental insurance coverage. Becoming a member of him on the manager crew are achieved trade veterans and technologists. As illustrated by the bulleted resumes beneath, the complementary expertise and experiences held by this management crew positions them to disrupt the antiquated and inefficient dental insurance coverage trade whereas concurrently navigating the established order.
- Chief Working Officer Kevin Klein
- Senior vp at DentaQuest (Delta Dental of Massachusetts)
- Chief advertising and marketing, gross sales and technique officer at Boston Medical
- Vp of dental networks and high quality at Guardian Insurance coverage
- Chief Development Officer Landon Lemoine
- Director of gross sales and progress, international markets at Modo Labs
- Senior enterprise growth supervisor at Endurance Worldwide Group
- Enterprise growth and mergers and acquisitions at Fixed Contact (acquired by Endurance Worldwide)
- Chief Product Officer Prem Yerabothu
- Govt director at IBM
- Founding member and director of growth at Netezza
- Director of growth at Applix
- 20-plus years of constructing world-class engineering groups
- Chief Gross sales Officer Chip Huffman
- President at Northwest Insurance coverage Company Group
- Vp of enterprise growth at NCD
- Senior vp of gross sales at TruAssurance Insurance coverage Firm
- Chief gross sales and advertising and marketing officer at Dental Choose
The Bento Platform
Bento’s HIPAA-compliant SaaS platform will trigger this disruption by enabling anybody (dentist practices and workplaces, unions, associations and organizations, firms) to construct, launch and administer their very own dental plans with out the necessity for conventional dental insurance coverage suppliers. The platform removes the intermediary within the trade (insurance coverage firms) by offering a profit builder, cloud-based adjudication, fee processing and transparency, and a cell app. This ends in prices which might be 30% lower than conventional dental insurance coverage for plan administration and claims processing whereas providing better transparency and worth to members.
With virtually 100,000 of the 160,000 dentists within the nation in its community, Bento possesses the third-largest supplier community behind Delta Dental and Cigna. Moreover, the American Dental Affiliation has endorsed Bento and even makes use of the platform to supply dental advantages to its personal staff.
After preliminary go-to-market (GTM) efforts in 2019, the shake-up of in-person healthcare pushed by the pandemic pressured Bento to change its technique, as a result of shoppers weren’t capable of see dentists and make the most of their advantages. Now the corporate is using a two-pronged method to realize market share. First, Bento is focusing on organizations reminiscent of HealthShares, Well being Plans and associations that signify 7 million Individuals underserved by the established order. The corporate can be rolling out a state-by-state GTM plan to promote to gig economic system employees, small and medium-size companies, and enterprises, beginning in Colorado with plans to increase into Georgia, Arizona, Texas and Florida within the close to time period.
Bento monetizes the platform through subscriptions and transaction charges. For teams (associations, unions, employers, and so on.) or dental practices and workplaces offering plans to their members, staff or clients, Bento prices $5 per particular person per 30 days. If a person with no group affiliation indicators on to be a Bento buyer, their charge is 7% of any transaction.
Bento will not be alone in attempting to modernize the antiquated dental insurance coverage trade. Along with the apparent competitors from conventional insurance coverage firms, there are startups reminiscent of BEAM Dental and Degree which might be providing different options. Bento’s key differentiator is the platform nature of its providing. Bento permits dentists, employers and different teams to construct and administer versatile dental plans in a cheap method, offering a greater, extra clear expertise for everybody concerned.
With the potential for disrupting an archaic trade and serving to tens of millions of sufferers worldwide, we’re thrilled to accomplice with Sudireddy and the Bento crew on their journey.
