At a time of hospital overcrowding, rising nursing burnout and surging chronic illnesses, Float benefits patients, nurses, prescribers, pharmacies, payers and health systems
Float, the marketplace moving all the care that doesn’t need a hospital to the home, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Canvas Ventures, whose General Partner Mike Ghaffary has joined Float’s board, with participation from Wave Capital, Y Combinator, Burst Capital, and Also Capital. Several tech industry founders and leaders joined as angels, including Max Mullen, Co-founder of Instacart, Andrew Bartynski, Vice President of Strategy and Operations at ASRI, Brian Pokorny, former General Partner of SV Angel, Jed Nachman, COO of Yelp, and Brian Osborn, former VP of Marketing at Yelp.
With $15 million in total funding, Float has the capital, talent, and technology to continue tackling a root cause of healthcare’s most pressing issues: chronic illness.
133 million Americans suffer from a chronic illness, and that number continues to rise at an alarming rate. Many chronic conditions, such as multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases, require specialty medicines that can only be given through a needle by an experienced nurse. To find a nurse who can administer medicines by injection or through an IV, most people head to their local hospitals, which are not built for routine care. This has become a major contributor to hospital overcrowding, increased administrative burdens, and staffing shortages – all of which cost healthcare systems hundreds of billions of dollars every year.
Float is a rare win for everyone — from patients, caregivers, nurses, prescribers, pharmacies, payers, health systems, and ultimately anyone in the United States. Instead of forcing patients with chronic illnesses to go to overcrowded hospitals full of sick people for routine care, Float brings the best of the hospital to their homes: highly skilled nurses who can provide personalized care.
Founded in 2021 by former ER nurse Ryan Johnson, CEO and Christy Johnson, COO, Float has built a network of hundreds of nurses across California and Arizona. Ryan’s experience in nursing along with Christy’s background in startups and operations allowed them to recognize the massive need to scale their service to expand access to specialty infusions. Float’s customers are some of the biggest names in specialty medicine, such as Optum, CVS, Option Care, Alliance RX (Walgreen’s), Kroger,
“After years in the emergency room treating patients with chronic conditions, and from treating my dad who suffers from one, I realized that moving specialty medicine into the home would be a sea change for everyone, ” said Johnson. “Expanding access to this type of care would have a huge impact on patient outcomes, not to mention the burnout of my nurse friends exhausted by long shifts and juggling priorities. Float has proven successful in doing exactly that.”
Proven impact:
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Patients: Millions of people with chronic illnesses who need routine care can stay happy and healthy in their homes rather than spend their time and money going to the hospital, or even missing their treatment altogether. Float has already completed 19,000 visits and has a staffing rate of 97%.
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Nurses: With Float, nurses can earn extra money using their skills and free time without picking up extra shifts at a hospital. They have complete flexibility and control over their schedules and are paid 1.5-2x more than a hospital, where a shift is 12.5 hours long. Float’s nurse retention rate sits at 56%.
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Prescribers: Float ensures patients get quality care by improving compliance, efficacy, and affordability. Doctors see better outcomes for their patients, which encourages them to prescribe more treatments.
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Pharmacies: Float reduces operational costs for pharmacies compared to managing in-house nursing. It also reduces administrative burdens and expedites reimbursements all while reducing chart bounceback.
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Payers: Float makes routine medicine 12x cheaper than it would be in a hospital. Patients adhere to their treatments, which decreases the likelihood that they will be admitted for other symptoms of their disease.
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Hospital Systems: Already overburdened without enough beds, Float removes the need to administer chronic routine medicine in the hospital, which opens up beds and allows them to focus on critical patient care.
“I’ve spent the last decade building companies and taking startups all the way to IPO or exit,” said Mike Ghaffary, General Partner at Canvas Ventures. “This is the first time in my career that I’ve encountered a company with a solution that has so much alignment across stakeholders. We look forward to seeing how this capital can supercharge Float’s next phase of growth.”