Solace Founder Jeremy Gurewitz Raises $130M to Transform Healthcare Advocacy

Solace raises $130M to give every patient an advocate

Solace is building the marketplace for healthcare advocates. Its advocates are nurses who take one patient and stay with them, doing the navigating families cannot do alone in a system shaped by regulation and consolidation. The 2024 Medicare rule that began paying for advocacy makes it a business, and Gurewitz's bet is that advocacy becomes a standard, insured part of care.

Takeaways

• Solace raised $130M to expand beyond Medicare. IVP led the Series C, which Gurewitz says was deeply oversubscribed, at a valuation above $1bn. Inspired Capital has backed Solace since its Series A. Proceeds fund the platform and awareness as Solace expands from Medicare into commercial insurance.
• Medicare now pays for healthcare advocacy. A 2024 regulation created the codes that let insurance cover advocates, and Gurewitz spoke with CMS and the former head of Medicare who instituted them. Most patients pay little or nothing, which is what lets Solace operate as a marketplace rather than a cash service.
• Each patient gets one advocate for years. A physician-led intake confirms the diagnosis and eligibility, then the patient gets a single advocate they keep, rather than a call center. Advocates handle provider access, chronic illness, medication and care plans. NPS is about 90.
• Nurses are the supply unlock. Many nurses want to become advocates, so Solace recruits and trains them. The company has thousands of advocates and roughly 300 employees, and could reach 1,000 by year end. It is hiring across software engineering and product design.
• Early claims data show lower costs. Gurewitz cites preliminary longitudinal claims data, not yet published, showing lower costs after patients work with Solace. He has hired PhD researchers to work on outcomes, with mortality as one endpoint and quality of life as another.
• Regulation and consolidation break the system. Gurewitz argues well-meaning rules leave providers few ways to act, while local monopolies and consolidation remove any incentive to improve outcomes. Records can only be searched geographically because providers are not allowed a single linking ID.

How one patient got back on the transplant list

1. A kidney transplant patient joked that he could not wait to have a beer. A nurse overheard and charted him as an alcoholic, which got him removed from the transplant list.
2. Solace's advocate got the hospital to change the chart, then engaged the National Organ Transplant Registry.
3. It took a month to get him back on the list at the bottom, and another month to be placed properly.
4. He received a kidney and his life was saved.