Simplee, healthcare payments startup, seeks buyer

Simplee, a healthcare payments and patient engagement startup, is seeking $100 million in a sale, according to four people familiar with the matter.

Bowstring Advisors, a division of Citizens Capital Markets, is advising Simplee on the process, the people said.

Initial indications of interest are due Wednesday, Sept. 18, one of the people said. Both sponsors and strategics are in the mix, this person said.

Palo Alto, California-based Simplee generates around $15 million in revenue and is break-even, some of the people said.

Simplee was founded in 2010 by CEO Tomer Shoval, COO Roberto Rabinovich and CTO Tom Tsarfati.

Simplee’s technology platform uses data to help patients better understand and pay their medical bills. The company’s financial engagement tools facilitate patient education on cost estimates ahead of medical care, fuels more collections via its self-service billing and payments platform, as well as offers financing options for patients.

Simplee has raised a total of $37.8 million in funding over four rounds, according to Crunchbase.

The process comes on the heels of JP Morgan Chase’s $550 million to $600 million bet for InstaMed, one of healthcare payments’ hottest and highly anticipated deals of the year.

As such, the outcome of InstaMed was expected to set off a flurry of activity among healthcare payment companies in the sub-$20-million-in-revenue universe.

Besides Simplee, other small assets operating at the nexus of healthcare and payments include the likes of Pamplona Capital’s Patientco, as well as VC-backed Patient Pay and CarePayment.

In other related activity, VPAY was taken off the market in September after bids fell short of price expectations of as much as $700 million, Buyouts reported. VPAY, backed by FTV Capital, facilitates payments on behalf of health plans, dental plans, third-party administrators and workers’ comp and auto insurers.

–Luisa Beltran contributed to this report.

Action Item: Reach out to Simplee at 800.464.5125