Solace Health reaches unicorn status by eliminating 'homework' in care

Healthcare startups welcomed a new unicorn on Tuesday, with Silicon Valley-based Solace Health closing a $130 million Series C round at a valuation of more than $1 billion.

The round was led by IVP, bringing Solace's total funding since its founding in 2021 to $211 million. Other investors participating in the round include Menlo Ventures, SignalFire, Torch Capital, Inspired Capital and RiverPark Ventures.

Solace is a healthcare navigation startup that helps patients and families find, coordinate, and afford healthcare—an often extremely difficult task in the U.S.

“We're solving a pretty broad problem, which is that health care in America isn't great. It's not a good experience for a lot of people,” said Jeremy Gurewitz, CEO and co-founder of Solace. “The friction that exists between people in getting really high-quality care is everywhere, so we're trying to address that holistically.”

Guruwitz co-founded the company with chief product officer Sara Sargent, largely inspired by what he witnessed in the final months of his mother's life. She died of pancreatic cancer a few years ago, and he saw how Kafkaesquely stressful the process of seeking and receiving the care she needed was.

Guruwitz noted that his mother had more privilege and familiarity with the health care system than most. She's a doctor herself, a radiologist who specializes in diagnosing breast cancer, and has access to top medical facilities—but her medical journey remains a nightmare.

“I wanted to start a company to help people, and I discovered Healthcare Advocates and saw how good they were. I think the thing that really stood out to me was that I would talk to patients who were working with Healthcare Advocates, and they would say, 'I had a really good experience with the American healthcare system,' which is something you don't hear very often,” he said.

The goal behind Solace is simple: connect more people with healthcare advocates. These advocates help with tasks such as scheduling appointments, finding in-network providers, understanding insurance coverage and billing, and coordinating care with multiple clinicians, Gruwitz explained. They actually handle much of the work on behalf of the patient, rather than simply telling the patient what steps to take next.

Gruwitz describes it as a “no homework” ethos – a deliberate departure from navigation services that leaves users overwhelmed with to-do lists. While many care navigation companies exist, such as Accolade, Transcarent and Quantum Health, he believes serving patients directly may be the only way to make progress in navigating an already tired system.

The service is covered by Medicare and most Medicare Advantage plans nationwide, meaning most users pay little out of pocket, Guruwitz said.

As part of the intake process, patients meet with a doctor on the platform, who confirms their diagnosis and helps determine how Solace can support their care — a step Gurewitz said is necessary both for clinical oversight and to meet regulatory requirements related to Medicare coverage.

From there, patients connect with their advocates, who work with them through text messages, phone calls or video visits embedded directly into the platform. Solace works with patients facing a variety of issues, from basic access issues, such as finding an available primary care physician or specialist, to more complex situations involving chronic conditions, medication access, and high-stakes treatment decisions.

In the most severe cases, advocates help patients deal with serious bureaucratic failures, Gurwitz noted. He recalled one instance in which a patient came to Solace after being mistakenly taken off the organ transplant list. Due to a kidney transplant, patients joke that “they can't wait to drink beer when this is all over.” The nurse wrote in their chart that they were alcoholics and they were taken off the list.

“How do you even begin to like solve this problem? So they come to Solace and work with an advocate to go through this very tedious process of changing the hospital chart. Once the chart is changed, then that's still just the beginning,” Gurewitz explained.

Once the record is corrected, advocates must work with the National Organ Transplant Registry to restore the patient to the transplant list. While patients were eventually added back, they were still placed at the bottom of the list despite years of waiting — a positioning that did not accurately reflect their medical history or urgency.

For about three months, advocates continued to work with the registry to correct patient placement, submit documentation, follow up with administrators and push to ensure cases were properly reviewed. Gruwitz noted that for most seriously ill patients, the process is nearly impossible to complete on its own.

He said the company is targeting an initial public offering in 2028 as it looks to continue to expand its reach.

Photo: Helen Alderton, Getty Images