Watsi
Directly fund life-changing surgeries for people around the world.
About Watsi
Watsi is a nonprofit healthcare crowdsourcing platform that enables individual donors to directly fund medical care for individuals in developing countries without access to affordable medical care.
Watsi was the first nonprofit funded by seed accelerator Y Combinator. They have also been funded by the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation. In November 2015 the company announced a $3.5M growth round of donations led by 12 investors including Paul Graham, Tencent, and The Pershing Square Foundation. Medical partners included Nyaya Health, Dr. Rick Hodes, Wuqu' Kawoq, Children's Surgical Centre, CURE International, African Mission Healthcare Foundation, Hope for West Africa, Project Muso, Lwala Community Alliance, Living Hope Haiti, Floating Doctors, Burma Border Projects, Partner for Surgery, International Care Ministries, The Kellermann Foundation, and World Altering Medicine. In 2016, Wasti partnered with Patientco, a healthcare payment technology company, to fund medical procedures throughout the world.
The medical partner identifies a patient that needs low-cost, high-impact medical care and submits the profile to Watsi. If the profile meets the criteria, Watsi accepts it and guarantees the medical partner that they will cover the cost of providing care to that patient. Watsi posts the profile online, donors browse the profile and fund it, and the medical partner provides care to the patient once the patient reaches his or her funding goal. After the treatment is provided, the medical partner sends Watsi an update about the outcome of the treatment. After receiving the update, Watsi sends it to the donors who supported that patient and transfer the funds via PayPal to the medical partner's bank account to cover the cost of the treatment.
In 2014, Watsi's old logo, which had a blue cross with a white triangle, was the subject of a trademark suit from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association,[14] leading the company to change their logo to white triangles on a blue circle.
Watsi's approach
People first. They put patients, health workers, and community partners at the center of every decision.
Advanced technology. They use technology to reimagine health financing in ways that reduce costs, improve quality, and expand access to care.
Radical transparency. They collect real-time data to show exactly where money goes, enabling anyone to track their impact down to individual health outcomes.
193 of the world's governments share a goal to achieve universal health coverage by 2030. They are building the technology that will make it possible.