Vidia, founded in 2020 by entrepreneurs Thiago Bonini and Eduardo Cerqueira, is a kind of “Uber of surgeries”.
The digital platform offers elective surgeries for people who do not have health insurance. By offering a high volume of patients to private hospitals with idle capacity in the operating room, the company manages to make the price of operations up to 40% cheaper.
Among the renowned hospitals on the market in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz, Sabará Hospital Infantil and Casa de Saúde São João de Deus. In total, Vidia already works with 10 brands, in addition to diagnostic networks.
The company also splits the cost of the surgeries and even offers a website for the patient to perform a “virtual crowdfunding” to raise money for the procedure.
“In the last decades, health in Brazil has been structured in a binary way: on the one hand, insurance and health plans regulated by the ANS and, at a very distant end, the SUS. For those who do not have a plan, but are willing to pay for health care, there are no options. That's where we come in, we are the third way”, explains Thiago Bonini, co-founder and CEO of Vidia.
Another differentiator is the fixed cost of the procedure negotiated with the hospitals. The startup negotiates a complete package, in which the medical team, the surgical center, exams and consultations are included. According to Bonini, the amount paid by the client is fixed and includes all the assistance until the medical discharge.
In the short time since their launch, Vidia has generated over USD $560K in extra revenue for partner hospitals and has offered access to healthcare to over 500 families.
The startup raised USD $1.7M in a seed round led by Caravela Capital, with the participation of Verve Capital, Preface Ventures, Niu Ventures, K50 Ventures, Head and Heart Capital, and Aimores Investments.
Vidia was previously accelerated by Eretz.Bio, Albert Einstein Hospital's innovation hub, and selected as ScaleUp Endeavor.
With the new capital, the startup wants to scale their business. Vidia is negotiating with hospitals in two capitals in the Northeast of Brazil and wants to test the model in smaller centers, such as the interior of São Paulo and Paraná.
