INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Savvy, a healthcare cooperative, has just raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Indie.vc.
Established as a cooperative that shares
profits with its users, Savvy connects patients with healthcare companies and other providers looking to better serve people through
Patients can take paid gigs that include tasks like interviews, focus groups and user testing.
Savvy is set up as a multi-stakeholder
Those stakeholders are divided into four classes: patients, Savvy employees, founders and investors
Up until now, Savvy has been entirely bootstrapped and sustained by its revenue, Savvy CEO Jen Horonjeff told TechCrunch via email.
&But as
more and more companies are seeing that patient insights are critical to help their healthcare solutions find product-market fit, we need to
scale up our operations to meet the demand,& she said
&This financing will allow us to expand our offerings, support more companies and, in turn, improve the lives of countless more
patients.&
Cooperatives can oftentimes face trouble raising venture funding
That because their business models don&t generally align with the incentives of traditional venture capitalists, Horonjeff previously told
me.
&I have to say a lot of investors are, first of all, not curious,& she said
&And those that are curious — and we&ve gone down the path with people like that — think we&re this cool new thing, but just don&t
understand how it going to jive with the rest of their fund
So there aren&t great mechanisms in place to kind of bridge the gap between what people know and what the new economy could look like.&
For
Indie.vc, which already takes a non-traditional approach to venture capital, co-ops fit into the firm vision
Indie.vc, which aims to be the last investment its founders need to take, is geared toward startups with founders who value preserving
nationality and ownership.
As Indie.vc founder Bryce Roberts said in a statement, &Savvy represents everything we&d like to see in the
future of impact business — shared ownership, diverse perspectives, and aligned incentives, tackling one of the largest industries on the
planet.&
This co-op wants to put money back into patients& hands
