Cuidas

Cuidas, a Brazilian health-tech startup, was established in 2018 by co-founders Deborah Alves and João Vogel. The company was conceived from the founders' shared desire to address shortcomings in Brazil's healthcare industry after their experiences working in the United States. Alves, with a background in Computer Science and Mathematics from Harvard and experience as a software engineer at Quora, served as the CTO and later COO. Vogel's background also contributed to their mission of improving healthcare access and delivery in their home country.

The company operated on a B2B subscription model, partnering with businesses to offer primary healthcare services to their employees. For a monthly per-employee fee, client companies could provide their staff with unlimited telehealth or in-person consultations with a curated network of primary care physicians and nurses. Cuidas developed its own in-house medical record system, managing patient data to generate health insights for corporate HR departments, enabling them to identify and address prevalent health issues like burnout or depression within their workforce. This model aimed to provide a more cost-effective alternative or supplement to traditional health plans by emphasizing preventative care and early diagnosis, thus reducing the need for more expensive specialist interventions.

The company demonstrated significant growth, quadrupling its expansion in both 2019 and 2020. It successfully raised R$22 million through two funding rounds, with backing from prominent investors such as Kaszek Ventures, Canary, Península Participações, and Jorge Paulo Lemann. In 2021, Cuidas was acquired by Alice, another health management startup, a move intended to bolster Alice's corporate health service offerings. Following the acquisition, the Cuidas team, including the founders, was integrated into Alice to continue pursuing their mission of enhancing employee health and wellbeing.

Keywords: Cuidas, health-tech, corporate wellness, primary healthcare Brazil, B2B healthcare, telehealth services, employee health benefits, subscription healthcare, preventative care, digital health, startup acquisition, Alice, Deborah Alves, João Vogel, Kaszek Ventures, corporate health solutions, on-site medical care, employee wellbeing, healthcare data insights, Brazil startups