Ideon Blog

**Ideon is the company formerly known as Vericred. Vericred began operating as Ideon on May 18, 2022.**

By Michael W. Levin, Vericred co-founder and CEO

Vericred experienced record growth in new customers and revenue in 2021. 

That’s good news by any measure, for any company.

But what is especially gratifying to this company is the extent to which leaders on both the carrier and InsurTech sides of our world increasingly share our vision, one in which data liquidity and connectivity is the minimum operating standard of the industry. Our business won’t succeed—and our industry will not evolve—if buy-in to these ideas does not become universal. Our results strongly suggest this is happening.

That Vericred can handle such rapid growth in a business with resource-intensive, data-integration processes reflects the efforts of an incredible team. It will also serve as a catalyst for expansion. 

The fourth quarter is always an intense time in our industry, but this year gave new meaning to the word, as we built plan and rate data for over 45,000 ACA plans and oversaw a 100x increase in employer group renewals. And we accomplished all of that in the midst of a pandemic, when remote work generally remains our norm. I say “generally” because our data operations team has been coming into the office since July. For that, the rest of us are thankful, not only for their excellent work but also because they avoided significant COVID-related health issues.

Account growth often leads to strategic additions to the staff, and that was the case for us. We increased our employee ranks by 70% in 2021, and more hires are expected in 2022. Recruiting is always difficult, and it is especially so in today’s unique environment. But one reason we’re as good as we are at attracting strong leaders and superior engineering, product, marketing, sales and operations contributors is because every new hire knows they will be joining a team already filled with top talent. We could not be prouder of our people, the work they put in, and the product they put out.

Earlier this year we completed a Series B round of funding totaling $22.7 million. We are gratified to have received sizable monetary votes of confidence from four new investors (Aquiline Technology Growth, Echo Health Ventures, MassMutual Ventures, and Guardian Strategic Ventures) and three existing ones (Riverside Acceleration Capital, First Health Capital Partners, and FCA Venture Partners). That said, we’re also grateful to the potential investors who passed. We learn a lot from “no” votes that test our theories and challenge our views. We cannot fall prey to confirmation bias or any other decision trap if we are to succeed in this societally crucial business.

Our progress in 2021—in customer growth, staff expansion, and investor approbation—suggests that our industry is genuinely ready to embrace transparency and connectivity. That’s no small thing. The time will soon arrive, if it hasn’t already, when employers and members will demand the kinds of seamless digital experiences in choosing and using health insurance and benefits that they have come to expect from most other commercial interactions. 

Indeed, we expect 2022 to be a year that the industry focuses with laser intensity on the member experience, in all its manifestations and with all its opportunities. This can only help Vericred, given how efficiently our platform powers carrier connectivity and digital experiences for benefits-focused insurtechs. But it’s also good for our industry and our country. If there’s anything we’ve learned in the past two years, it’s just how important an efficient insurance-and-benefits ecosystem is to our collective wellbeing. We’re thrilled to be in a position to meaningfully help facilitate that, in this or any year.