Healthcare labor marketplace CareRev raises $50M

Last week saw a flurry of HR tech investment rounds – notably, RippleMatch and Deel – and this week looks set to be no different as CareRev has announced the closure of a $50 million Series A round.

The financing was led by Transformation Capital, a healthtech-focused equity fund; other investors, including Industry Ventures, Michael Seibel of Y Combinator, and Zach Coelius of Coelius Capital, also participated in the round.

Based in California and founded by Will Patterson, a trauma nurse, in 2015, CareRev is a labor marketplace for the healthcare sector. It offers a place for hospitals and other healthcare facilities to post shifts to both their internal staff and CareRev’s vetted local network of qualified healthcare staff.

In this respect, it aims to transform the healthcare workforce model by enabling hospitals to fill shifts quickly – sometimes in response to emergency situations — with qualified local staff who are keen to pick up extra shifts. CareRev also argues that modernizing shift scheduling helps to improve employee engagement, and therefore retain staff.

The need for a new way to flexibly fill hospital shifts has only become highlighted by the pandemic. The COVID-19 crisis saw many hospitals struggle with staffing shortages as doctors and nurses were often off sick and isolating with COVID-19.

Patterson commented: “When the pandemic hit, we were ready to help both hospitals and healthcare professionals through the uncertainty. The flexibility of our solution allowed for accelerated adoption when it was most needed.”

“Our vision is to build a more resilient post-COVID workforce in which health systems can tap into a latent supply of local, flexible healthcare professionals when they need them, and professionals are empowered to work where and when they want.”

Over the past five years, CareRev has attracted more than 30 hospitals.

“We’ve already seen 20% month-over-month growth since April of last year, doubled our revenue in the past six months, and in Q4 alone doubled the number of healthcare professionals using our mobile app. The demand for flexible staffing is through the roof,” commented Patterson.

The HR tech company plans to use its new tranche of funding to further scale its product and operations, including by integrating more artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning into its platform.