Ness
Ness, a wellness-focused fintech company, raised $15.5M in a seed round led by Will Ventures.
Bolstering its platform, Ness is also acquiring a portion of WellSet’s business, scooping up a nationwide network of health professionals.
Banking on Preventative Health
Debuting its fitness credit card, Ness wants to reward healthy choices one purchase at a time.
Teaming up with top brands across recovery, boutique fitness, wearables, digital mental health, and, Ness users earn points toward a catalog of products and services by using their card.
Promoting better choices while easing financial burdens, wellness-related purchases and medical expenses each earn 5x points.
Strengthening its partner network, founders and execs from Sweetgreen, Mirror, Headspace/Ginger, Thrive Market, Oura, Noom, and other wellness companies participated in the company’s seed round.
In acquiring WellSet’s nationwide network of 4,000+ health professionals, Ness cardholders will soon also be able to put their points toward services from therapists, dietitians, doulas, and more.
Doubling down on healthcare, Ness plans to pursue medical benefits, supplemental insurance, and comprehensive health insurance for cardholders, shifting their spend to support holistic well-being.
A rewards program like this, says Will Ventures managing partner Brian Reilly, seeks to remedy a broken healthcare system:
“The approach to use credit cards as a wedge into offering a more aligned health insurance solution will reinvent the way we take care of our long-term health.”
Work Out, Cash In
Ness joins a growing wave of startups incentivizing users to get moving.
Competing on the credit card front, Paceline rewards users for hitting a 150-minute weekly exercise goal; it raised $26M in a Series A last year.
The same sentiment is being applied across web3, digital health, employee benefits, and more:
- Move-to-earn NFT startup STEPN raised $5M and partnered with ASICS on co-branded digital sneakers.
- Sweatcoin launched a new cryptocurrency, the SWEAT token, to fuel its step-counting digital economy.
- Adding $2.3M last July, employee benefits platform JOON partners with companies on flexible packages that allow employees to choose their own wellness perks.
The big picture: As we said in Issue No. 170: “By increasing access and incentivizing physical activity, everybody—from operators and consumers to employers and health plans—wins.
