The Brazilian startup hygia, which defines itself as “the first finhealth in Brazil”, begins 2022 taking off: through a partnership with SudAmericana, a company specializing in business and individual insurance, hygia (just like that, in lower case) will take its preventive health solutions to other countries in Latin America, starting with Bolivia.
Founded in 2019, hygia positions itself as a hub for preventive health solutions with an eye on financial education. The startup‘s proposal is to promote health as an investment, not an expense.
“We assume that Brazilians have a reactive culture of health care, seeking specialists and hospitals only when a problem already exists, but we know how essential it is that there is prior attention to issues involving health”, explains Maikol Parnow, CEO of hygia.
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Through artificial intelligence, data management and prevention culture, hygia has a varied portfolio of solutions. “It is very simple to use and encompasses a digital bank, a health application and a service store for the segment”, lists Parnow, reinforcing that the platform is not a health plan.
Among the services offered for the segment are a preventive health program for companies, high-precision genetic testing, insurance and investment platform focused on health professionals, and medical management software.
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In Bolivia, the program will begin with the implementation of the health score. The program works by collecting data from companies and employees with all the security of the LGPD (Portuguese acronym for General Law of Data Protection), mapping this information to verify how the general health is within the company in order to generate reports with plans to improve the health score.
hygia does not disclose absolute numbers about its operation but says that in Brazil it already serves about 1,000 corporate clients, and that it registered a growth of 500% last year, with the increase in the search for companies for programs focused on health and wellness for employees. “We want to revolutionize health, making people understand that planning is effective and directly connected to the financial education of each one,” said Parnow.
According to him, the startup intends to expand its business to several other Latin American countries, but the focus is still on Brazil. “Bolivia is just the beginning. Little by little we will understand the market and the situation of each country. We have plans for a bold expansion, but first we need to implement this health planning culture in Brazil,” he concludes.
