A company that created a rewards program as an incentive for people to take care of their health launched nationally.
Carepoynt built a cloud-based platform where members can connect with each other and with healthcare providers. It serves several demographics: consumers, providers, employers, insurance companies and brokers, and the company’s strategic partners.
Individual users can create personal health plans and wellness goals and track their progress. They’re rewarded for following the plans, completing health screenings and making health-conscious purchases from Carepoynt’s website.
Strategic partners, such as Target Inc. and food-delivery provider Blue Apron Inc., as well as several Orange County-based wellness businesses, use the platform to encourage users to earn, redeem and share “carepoynts.”
These points can be pooled and shared with users’ friends and family, known as “carecliques.” They can also be donated to charitable organizations through “Share the Care.”
Services and transactions issue “poynts.” Carepoynt makes money during the conversion from dollars to “poynts” and from “poynts” to gift cards. It’s a proprietary conversion rate that’s dependent on the agreement with each partner, according to a company spokesperson.
The company also makes money through the purchasing of products and services through its strategic partners.
The private company doesn’t disclose revenue, co-founder and Chief Executive Tim Stanley said.
It’s received $1.5 million in funding, with Irvine-based Tech Coast Angels leading an investment round and Harvard Business School Alumni Angels following, as well as Shepherd Growth Capital Partners and a number of private investors, Stanley said.
Around the World
A Lake Forest startup that created an artisan marketplace with specialty items from around the world is raising a seed round of $500,000. Founder and Chief Executive Christophe Boyac developed myPanier.com at England’s Oxford University. He incorporated the company in 2016, launched the online marketplace in August of the same year, and moved the headquarters to OC in May.
Boyac said he would use the funds to recruit more OC artisans, and for development and marketing. The mission is to facilitate small food artisans reaching a larger audience. The website enables local artisans to sell globally and features their background stories.
Consumers can shop on the website by category, by region or by artisan. Specialty products include lavender honey drop candy and black truffle peelings.
For most products, the company takes a margin between the retail and wholesale price. Boyac said the margins are “fair” to allow customers to buy artisan food at a competitive price and enable the artisans to receive a fair price for their products.
For international products, the company buys directly from artisans around the world, eliminating 80% of transaction fees taken by intermediaries, such as importers and distributors. MyPanier is also testing some consignment and drop-shipping options where it takes a commission on the sale.
Sales are growing about 25% month-over-month, Boyac said. In September, the company did 35 times more sales than January, with the same number of products, he added.
Boyac received an Executive MBA at the Saïd Business School at Oxford.
Seeking $1M
A company that’s developing a social network, with a blockchain-based financial application, is seeking $1 million in seed funding, in advance of an initial coin offering. Blockchain is a database that enables the creation of a digital ledger and was originally developed to enable the safe trading of bitcoin, a type of decentralized digital currency.
An ICO is an initial public offering or crowdfunding-style campaign where supporters of the project send digital money—or in some cases use credit cards—to a website run by the company and then receive digital tokens in return.
Qard is part of the Irvine-based Blasmo accelerator. Qard Chief Executive Peter Perez Jr. founded the accelerator and the company.
When launched, members of Qard will be able to increase exposure to their personal brand, choose the people they want to communicate with, and receive payment via cryptocurrency—either bitcoin or ethereum—which will then be converted to Qard tokens.
Qard targets several demographics—entrepreneurs, designers, developers, and growth hackers. Members will be able to buy and sell each other’s insights and services, such as programming, designing and marketing.
The only legal way of getting seed capital for a pre-ICO is through a Simple Agreements for Future Tokens agreement, or SAFT. This means that instead of investing in a working product, there’s an investment in a future token/coin when there’s a working prototype. This is similar to the Simple Agreement for Future Equity, or SAFE, which provides rights to an investor for equity in a company, without determining a specific price-per-share.
Qard is seeking $1 million through the SAFT process. The capital would be used to set up and market a “reputable” Qard platform, Perez said. Once the platform is up and running, Qard can then do a pre-ICO with a goal of $5 million at a discounted rate, then do an ICO with a target of $10 million, which will be in compliance with SEC rules.
Qard will presell tokens next March at a discounted rate for its $5 million target and launch a full token issue and sale next April, with a goal of $15 million.
