Originally published by Fierce Healthcare on April 6, 2022
Nurse staffing platform IntelyCare is now valued at $1.1 billion after landing $115 million in series C funding.
The tech-enabled startup matches nurses with open assignments in post-acute care settings while managing scheduling and pay rates to give its professionals a “better nurse-life balance.”
Global asset manager Janus Henderson led the round, joined by Longitude Capital, Leeds Illuminate, Endeavour Vision, Revelation Partners and Kaiser Permanente Ventures.
The hefty capital infusion mirrors continued investor interest in startups targeting healthcare’s labor shortage. As staffing shortages plague hospitals and health systems across the country, platforms that match nurses or other providers to organizations desperate to fill open positions have exploded in popularity.
IntelyCare’s pool of nurses more than doubled in 2021, while its client demand nearly tripled. Since February 2020, the startup said its annual revenue has grown more than 850%.
Coupled with that success, the company plans to use the series C funding to expand into new states and invest in its tech platform.
“In 2016 we began working on a platform to disrupt an industry that was slow to innovate. We knew that a technology solution could change lives for both sides of the market and we’re seeing that vision come to fruition as we now have over 30,000 nursing professionals working with IntelyCare at over 1,600 facilities across the country,” said IntelyCare CEO and co-founder David Coppins in a statement. “We’ll use this investment to continue redefining the future of work for our nation’s nurses.”
Nursing shortages in the U.S. are expected to continue. In a recent survey of more than 300 nurse leaders across the country, 92% of respondents said they think the shortage will intensify in the next 18 months.
In a separate survey, more than a third of nurses said it’s very likely they’ll leave their jobs by the end of 2022, as burnout, stress and discrimination amplified by the pandemic pile on top of existing dissatisfaction with pay and benefits.
As a result, hospitals are turning to staffing agencies to temporarily fill gaps in their workforce, and investor interest in related startups is skyrocketing. Trusted Health nabbed $149 million in November, while connectRN grabbed $76 million in December. ShiftMed landed $45 million in October.
Like IntelyCare, many of these startups leverage tech advancements to intelligently match nurses with organizations that best suit their needs for wages, scheduling and other negotiations.
“Nursing wages have predictably increased during the pandemic due to unprecedented demand and labor shortages driven by increasingly challenging working conditions,” said John Shagoury, president and chief operating officer at IntelyCare. “Despite this, IntelyCare has been able to effectively meet the needs of both our nurses and clients because of our technology. By coupling data and behavioral science with advanced machine learning, our platform produces optimal pay rates and shift matching, attracting more nurses and filing more shifts for our clients.”