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  • Announcing ecton’s Seed Round

    ecton raises seed round from General Catalyst with participation from its returning investors, UpWest, LionBird, and Clocktower. 👊 Hello world! We’re thrilled to announce the launch of ecton - a modern savings and spending wallet for healthcare expenses.  Ecton’s founders, Gil Mahler (left) and Itamar Perlov (right) Americans are more worried about the cost of being ill than actually becoming ill —leaving providers to deal with the consequences. Patients are increasingly enrolling in high deductible health plans and are not adequately prepared for their healthcare spend, leading to financial toxicity (the negative impact that medical expenses have on patients’ quality of life) and delayed care. Without scalable remediating solutions, providers are forced to take on both the role of financial counselors and collectors, often losing trust with their patients . The healthcare financial journey for patients is awful—digital wallets can help drive change We are introducing a modern medical wallet that allows patients to shift from condensing their health budgeting decisions within the open enrollment period, when they typically lack relevant contextual information, into more dynamic and consistently evolving processes that match real time financial information with pioneering financial solutions. The entire experience is wrapped with a digital financial counselor, leveraging generative AI, to elevate patient financial health by providing 24/7 conversational support (for example, financial education and contextual guidance). 💡  Digital wallets  are the preferred way for Americans to pay for products and services - and this trend shows no signs of slowing down. Fundamentally, wallets are intelligent technological layers that can connect contextual data with payment options to enable seamless and insightful checkout. Fostering patient financial relationships  The ecton wallet is white labeled for providers with the ability to fully customize the experience. We are excited for the opportunity to help regain lost patient loyalty by truly embracing the flywheel between patient physical, mental, and financial health.  Prior to founding ecton, Gil and I built and scaled software and financial companies to help millions of Americans make better sense of their data and be more resilient with their money. We have witnessed firsthand how innovators from the travel, real estate, and even retail industries, who nurtured longitudinal financial relationships by using wallets, gained significant loyalty from their customers.  We are humbled by the overwhelming interest in our efforts to bring this vision to the  healthcare industry and are committed to making ecton the default engine for all consumer-obsessed providers, employers, and payers who seek to gain trust and help patients be financially healthier.

  • ecton Joins NVIDIA Inception Program to build the first AI Financial Counselor

    We are excited to join the NVIDIA Inception Program to build the first digital Financial Counselor leveraging GenAI technologies and scaling patient financial support for all Americans.   Learn more about the NVIDIA Inception Program In recent years, the healthcare landscape has undergone a significant transformation in the relationship between payers, providers, and employers. This evolution prioritizes customization, efficiency, and improved outcomes. Simultaneously, patient financial responsibility has steadily increased, driven largely by the growth in Americans enrolling in High Deductible Health Plans (HDHPs). Today, patient payments account for up to 30% of provider revenue. But while patient responsibility has increased dramatically, the payment experience remains awful, neglecting to embrace the same level of transformation. It is therefore not surprising that patients seek financial remediation through provider counseling services, which are now ranked as one of the top three desirable services by patients (equally high for commercially insured patients) - ranking ahead of payment plans and patient portals. Reinforcing this trend, the HFMA published an article earlier this year, arguing that: "The “missing link” is access to a financial counselor who could meet with every patient to walk them through their benefits, their expected out-of-pocket costs of care and their options for payment. While such a resource may be available to patients who need financial assistance, this type of one-to-one education typically isn’t available to all patients. And without that investment, payment confusion persists." There is plenty of evidence that providers are ready to take action, and we are inspired by the conversations we’ve had with leading health systems that are prioritizing financial counseling technologies as a top area of investment to alleviate the supply and demand gap.

  • 🚀 ecton wins Provider Health Innovation Roundtable (PHIR) Academy

    PHIR, Innovation Roundtable, A World 50 Group Community , is a collaborative group of regional health systems and innovation accelerators with a shared interest in identifying and prioritizing emerging solutions to partner with leading startups. We are thrilled and honored to share that our team has won their Academy Pitch Competition. 💡 Imagine a world where patients feel in control of their medical spending. Unfortunately in today’s world, Americans fear the cost of being ill more than actually becoming ill. When Gil and I started ecton, it was quite clear that the opportunity to achieve this vision was as big as its associated challenges. But we are fortunate to have a team of superstars who are equally inspired to reimagine healthcare payments. We would never be able to build ecton alone, and are humbled by the incredible interest and support from industry changemakers who care deeply about empowering patients to live healthier by being financially healthy.  Learn more about the PHIR Academy award This heartwarming recognition from industry leaders substantiates our belief in this journey. In recent months, and intensively during the Academy, we got to know the PHIR Academy experts and feel lucky to have received their invaluable guidance.

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