Pliant Acquires hi.health and Brings its Payment Expertise to the Insurance Market
- Written by: iPMI Global
European fintech Pliant has acquired the Austrian Insurtech hi.health. The acquisition enables Pliant to apply its payment expertise to the insurance sector while also gaining valuable industry-specific know-how. This marks the company’s second acquisition following the purchase of Friday Finance in 2023.
hi.health will continue to operate independently, while benefiting from Pliant’s support and infrastructure to increase the strength, stability, and efficiency of its product offering.
The company has developed a unique digital interface between insurance carriers and customers. By using a payment card, insured individuals no longer have to pay upfront and can submit invoices (e.g. healthcare invoices and prescriptions) for reimbursement directly via a mobile app. The Vienna- and Berlin-based startup was founded in 2019 by Fredrik Debong (co-founder of mySugr) and Sebastian Gruber (formerly McKinsey).
“hi.health has developed an impressive solution at the intersection of Fintech and insurance. By embedding a payment option into the submission process, they are revolutionizing what has traditionally been a cumbersome reimbursement workflow and creating real value in the process. That’s exactly our ambition: to make complex operational workflows digitally simple,” said Malte Rau, CEO of Pliant.
The strategic acquisition reinforces Pliant’s strategy of combining a payments platform with deep industry know-how. While Pliant already handles digital card and payment infrastructure for banks, the acquisition of hi.health brings insurance-specific expertise to the company.
“Our partnership with Pliant allows us to think even bigger about our mission. Together, we have the opportunity to transform financial processes in the insurance and healthcare industries - eliminating the cumbersome reimbursement procedures and significantly improving the experience for both users and healthcare providers,” said Sebastian Gruber, CEO and co-founder of hi.health.
The acquisition underscores Pliant’s goal of applying its expertise in payment processes to a broader range of use cases in the large insurance market. It follows successful growth in the travel, mobility, and banking sectors.
