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Bengaluru-based healthcare startup Even on Friday announced that it has raised $5 million in seed round led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Founders Fund (led by Peter Thiel), Lachy Groom, and other investors and operators, including Nikesh Arora (CEO, Palo Alto Networks; ex-COO, SoftBank), Kunal Shah (CEO, CRED), Nithin Kamath (Founder, Zerodha) and Tom Stafford (Partner, DST Global).

This is also the first investment in India by Nikesh Arora and Founders Fund that have previously invested in companies such as Stripe, SpaceX, Airbnb, and Facebook.

Even, a healthcare membership company founded by friends Mayank Banerjee, Matilde Giglio, and Alessandro Davide Ialongo, aims to cover what most insurance companies in the country don’t, including making going to a primary care doctor as easy and accessible as it is in other countries.

Launched in June 2020, Even’s health membership product will cost around $200 per year for a person aged 18 to 35 and covers everything – unlimited consultations with primary care doctors, diagnostics, and scans. The membership will also follow as the person ages, Ialongo said.

According to the official statement, the investment will help the startup to accelerate its plans to provide real solutions to an extremely challenging problem. 

“We intend to go live in Bengaluru this year, grow our customer base in the city, and bring in India’s best hospitals and labs in our network. At the same time, we are working towards expanding into other Tier I cities in India. We are constantly working towards building features into our product that serve our members and remove any friction in joining our membership service,” the startup stated.

Commenting on the investment, Vinod Khosla, Founder, Khosla Ventures, stated,

“Even has a unique model that is better for hospitals, insurers, and most importantly, for consumers. We couldn’t be more excited about this opportunity and to back this exceptional team.”

Speaking about the new development, the co-founders jointly commented,

“We are thrilled to have the support of some of the world’s leading investors, and we are even more excited that they share our mission to revolutionise healthcare in India. We believe every Indian should have access to 360 degree, high quality healthcare that does not bankrupt them.”

“No one should ever have to choose between their health and their savings. We are a healthcare provider that partners directly with the top hospitals in the country to offer unlimited diagnostics, consultations and 50 lakh worth of hospitalisations all with one monthly subscription cost. If the doctor says you need it, it’s covered,” they added.