Healthcare analytics startup Picwell raises $4M

Picwell, a Center City healthcare analytics company, raised $4 million from venture capitalists and healthcare execs around the country. The company’s first raise, it seemed to tap into Picwell CEO Jay Silverstein’s networks: he was the former Chief Branding Officer of Medco and Chief Marketing Officer of United Healthcare.
The equity round was led by Boston-based MassMutual Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, a spokeswoman said, with participation from Osage University Partners and several healthcare execs from Philly and cities like New Orleans and Dallas, Texas. (Find a full list of investors at the bottom of the story.)
The money will go toward a big staff expansion: the company is at 18 full-time now, up from 12 one year ago. Picwell aims to be at 40 by the end of the year. Former Monetate dev Jeff Patti is one of those 18 full-timers, as is CTO Ani Vemprala, who was a mentor at #techincolor’s Speed Mentoring event during Philly Tech Week 2015 presented by Comcast.

The company also has ties to Penn. Three of its cofounders, Bob Town, Tom Baker and Jonathan Kolstad, were or are Penn professors. (Kolstad recently left for UC Berkeley.) Picwell isn’t a Penn spinoff, a spokeswoman said, and the school does not have equity in the company.
Most of the staff is based at 2200 Arch St., but the company has a small office in Washington, D.C.
Picwell’s software helps consumers choose healthcare plans. It’s free for consumers, who reach the product through companies like Aon Hewitt, which offers the service through its Aon Retiree Health Exchange. Companies like Aon pay Picwell a subscription fee for the software.
Silverstein, 56, a Harvard grad, grew up in Upper Dublin (though, he wrote, “[I] hesitate to say I grew up here as my kids would argue that hasn’t happened yet).” After spending time in Ojai, Calif., and Weston, Conn., he returned to the area — Wayne, specifically — because his twin sons were invited to join the Philly Union Academy for soccer and study at the YSC School in Wayne, a school for future soccer players.
Aside from his work in the healthcare space, Silverstein also wrote a book about love and dating that has changed at least one man’s life.
Picwell’s investors include:

• Trevor Fetter, Chairman and CEO of Tenet Healthcare
• Kevin Hill, Partner at KCH Investments, former Executive Vice President of Sales and Business Strategy at Oxford Health Plans LLC, and former CEO of United Healthcare’s Northeast business line
• Andrew Kress, Founder of HealthVerity and former CEO of SDI Health
• Paul Kusserow, CEO of Amedisys, former Chief Strategy Officer of Humana and Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Ventures of Tenet Healthcare
• Bruce Perkins, former President, Health and Well-being Services for Humana

Kusserow, Hill and Eric Emmons of MassMutual all have board seats, according to an SEC filing.