Employee Wellness Platform Nova Benefits Raises $10 Million In Series A Funding Round

Nova Benefits, an employee wellness platform in India focusing on corporate health insurance, has secured $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Susquehanna International Group (SIG) and Bessemer Venture Partners. Existing investors, which include Multiply Ventures, Better Capital, and Titan Capital have also participated in this round.

Founded in 2020, Nova's tech platform helps companies improve employee wellbeing through health insurance, daily fitness, mental health counseling and wellness programs. Health insurance premiums are rising much faster than inflation. Nova's wellness programs help enterprises increase coverage while simultaneously bending cost curves. This is done by nudging employees towards preventive care and gamifying their fitness goals.

Nova helps employees access their wellness benefits on a single platform, increase their insurance coverage as needed and get a 5-star experience during a claim. Nova also helps HRs save time by automating manual workflows.

Anant Vidur Puri, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners said “We believe employee wellness is a nascent, under-penetrated but rapidly growing and evolving industry in India and technology will play a critical role in accelerating this growth. We are excited to partner with Nova as it addresses key problems in the industry with its unique software-led approach thereby providing a 10X better experience to employers and employees alike while enabling a more holistic benefits suite for employers in India. “

Nova Benefits saw a surge in clients amidst the pandemic, witnessing over 10x growth in a span of one year. Since its inception, the company has onboarded over 150 clients including companies like Dream 11, CoinDCX, Snapdeal, Zenoti, Yulu Bikes with over 100,000 users on the platform.

Kalpita Kallolini, HR executive at Varthana Finance, an education financing company, described her experience as "It's very satisfying to see our employees making the most of our wellness initiatives. Through Nova's platform, employees can access their health, accident & life insurance along with wellness programs that include health risk assessments & doctor consultations." Nova has a direct insurance broking license from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) which allows the company to provide businesses with the best combination of insurers and coverages.

Commenting on the announcement, Saransh Garg, Co-founder and CEO at Nova Benefits said, “Historically employee health insurance and wellness has just been a checkbox item for corporates. The pandemic has changed that. Nova's platform empowers progressive employers to provide personalised care for their team members which ultimately drives employee happiness & retention. A 24-year-old might be interested in developing positive fitness habits, a 32 year old working mother would be concerned about her child's health and a 55 year old might worry about ever-increasing healthcare expenses. We're excited to be on a path to improve the well-being 10 million Indians by 2025."

The company plans to use the funding to expand its Engineering, Product Management, Sales and Customer Success teams to build a larger stack of wellness offerings on their platform. Commenting on their hiring plans, Co-founder and CTO Yash Gupta said "We are not only improving employee and HR experience for insurance, but building a platform for a suite of benefits, including physical, mental and financial health. When the pieces of this puzzle come together, the value created for our customers is much more than just the sum of parts."

Yash Gupta is an IIT-Delhi, Computer Science grad having previously worked at Samsung (Korea), while Saransh, an IIT-Bombay & Y-Combinator alum, has previously worked at BCG & Accel. As per a report by Redseer, the corporate health and wellness market in India is valued at ~$7 billion currently and is expected to reach a value of ~$18 billion by 2025 driven by an increased focus on wellness by employers in a post-pandemic world.