ConnectRN, a platform that helps nurses and other healthcare workers find open shifts at nearby hospitals, has raised $76 million in fresh funding. The round was co-led by Suvretta Capital Management and Avidity Partners, and is coming at a particularly challenging time for the healthcare industry in general.
Of course, nursing has always been a notoriously difficult field of work — rife with long hours, hard physical labor, and unappreciative patients, co-workers and supervisors. But this has become “painfully apparent” during the pandemic, says Suvretta analyst Amanda Birdsey-Benson, with some 55 percent of frontline healthcare workers reporting burnout.
“Nurses and healthcare workers deserve a central place where they can connect, engage and find competitive career opportunities,” Birdsey-Benson said in a statement. “ConnectRN has a unique tech-platform that we believe has the potential to set the standard in the category going forward.”
ConnectRN works by providing a place where thousands of nurses, healthcare workers and aids connect with each other for support and to access career development resources and open shifts if they need. The startup makes money when a healthcare facility fills a shift with a nurse in its network. It also pays the nurse an hourly wage, payroll taxes, Social Security and medicare contributions.
The goal, says founder and ConnectRN CEO Ted Jeanloz, is to deliver the “right opportunities” to healthcare professionals in a “supportive and nurturing environment.” And he believes that will be the “future of healthcare” going forward.
“Nursing is the backbone of the healthcare system, and nurses and aides deserve a responsive community that empowers them to access supportive resources, provides greater flexibility to pursue new work opportunities and allows more control over their careers,” COO Maddie Thoms added in a statement. “To date, the ConnectRN platform has been widely adopted by clinicians and healthcare facilities.”
Indeed, in just three years ConnectRN has grown its revenue by more than 5,200 percent, according to Inc., which recently named the Waltham-based company as one of the fastest-growing startups in the country. And Jeanloz said in a statement that ConnectRN is poised to deliver 240 percent year-over-year organic revenue growth this year.
To keep up, the startup will use this fresh funding to expand its platform and move into more markets. It is also hiring, with dozens of open tech positions available now.
