Tag: Comcast Ventures

Accolade prices IPO

Tom Paine

Philly (Plymouth Meeting) & Seattle-based Accolade, which filed for an IPO back in February, announced its pricing this morning. The IPO’s timing was likely slowed down by Covid-19.

Accolade provides healthcare navigation assistance to client companies’ employees.. It combines the use of smart technology with human assistance. Comcast is its largest customer.

Accolade will price 8.75 million shares at between $19 and $21. raising $175 million at the midpoint and valuing the company at nearly $1 billion. Investors include Accretive at 26.9%, Andreessen Horowitz at 16.2%, Carrick Capital at 9.9%, and Comcast Ventures at 6.9%

Andreessen Horowitz also led a recent round in another Tom Spann-founded startup, Brightside. .Spann has no formal ties to Acccolade since stepping down from its. board late last year.

Accolade showed a $51.3 million net loss on $132.5 million in revenue for its fiscal year ending Feb. 29. I don’t think its unit ecconomics have been proven out to the point where they are projectible yet.

But it will probably draw a great deal of interest as a new concept in the hot digital health sector.

The company has applied to list on Nasdaq, under the ticker “ACCD.”

Tom Spann’s Act II, Brightside, raises $35.1 million from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) with participation from existing investors Comcast Ventures and Trinity Ventures

Tom Spann / Brightside website

Tom Paine

Brightside, which provides. tools to help companies’ employees stay on the right financial track with their personal finances, announced a $35.1 million Series A investment today.

The round was led by Andreesson Horowitz, with Comcast Ventures, Trinity Ventures and others also participating..Tom Spann, who founded employee health navigation company Accolade, which now has a valuation of $620 milli9n, is trying to replicate his success with healthcare by taking a similar approach to financial management. Accolade filed for an IPO back in February.

in its announcement, Brightside said it would have three headquarters: Chandler, AZ, San Fransisco, and Philadelphia, though Philadelphia presently has only a handful of the 103 employees listed on LinkedIn. The presence of Andreesson Horowitz, along with continued support from Comcast Ventures, is important.

Andreesson Horowitz also led a large round in Acccolade, so presumably its reasonably pleased with that investment and Spann as a founder. Spann cut his last formal tie with Accolade late last year, leaving its board to focus on being CEO of Brightside.

There is definitely a sense of missionary zeal about Spann, a belief in doing good, but nonetheless the venture must make financial. sense. Brigthside claims to put $1200 per year back in the pockets of the average employee, a number that seems low but honest. Expenses must. be measured against that number. Also, there must be limits on how far you can go in advising employees without running into regulatory issues.

Its still an unproven concept. Comcast as a client has been a test case.

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