We believe that innovative tech-enabled solutions have an important role to improve access to America’s fractured benefits systems and improve lives and health outcomes. Life-changing benefits at the federal, state, and local level are littered with red tape. Whether a person is attempting to enroll in Medicaid, secure SNAP benefits, or find utility relief, the systems are siloed and difficult to navigate. Oftentimes, many Americans don’t even know they’re eligible for benefits. This can lead to housing insecurity, financial hardship, and poor health outcomes. In 2023, 72% of Medicaid disenrollment was due to procedural reasons, like mail delivery issues or missing paperwork.
ThriveLink simplifies the process with its voice-activated AI enrollment platform. All it takes is a phone call or filling out a form online, where a user is prompted with questions about what resources they need help with. ThriveLink’s AI-powered platform then finds the right benefits programs, asks the necessary questions, and submits the applications to government agencies. Then helps move applications through to approval and enrollment
We recently closed an investment in ThriveLink and feel they have the potential to reach lives at scale. Here’s why.
It has real world impact
How this actually changes peoples’ lives is very encouraging. We know that applying for Medicaid and SNAP can be difficult and will get more difficult with new work requirements going into effect in 2027. But oftentimes, people don’t even know what benefits they qualify for. Many cities, states, and non-profits offer help with utilities, yet people who might need this help don’t know it’s available to them.
ThriveLink connects users with those resources. The app and their proprietary technology does the hard work of guiding users through and facilitating submissions on an applicant’s behalf. What we found so compelling is how inclusive ThriveLink’s platform is. It’s all via phone, so it doesn’t exclude people who might have lesser literacy skills. It doesn’t require the internet or a smartphone. It works in 75 languages. And users can do it whenever they want. They don’t have to call or visit the enrollment office during business hours.
It solves a really important pain point, which is: How do you quickly get people signed up for benefits in a simple way, in the language they want, and at a time they want to do it?
Time and timing is everything
The timing for this investment is critical. Because of the new work requirements for Medicaid and the need to streamline administrative burden, ThriveLink is poised to scale. Everyone in the industry—health systems, providers, and more—is looking for a solution like this. Whenever I mention ThriveLink to a provider or health system, everyone’s eyes light up. It has that kind of potential to ensure people stay enrolled in benefits.
There’s so much hype around AI and this is such a great application of it. Between the need for easing administrative burden and the acceleration of AI-enabled technologies, the environment is right for ThriveLink.
Founder and market fit
We back visionary women and underrepresented entrepreneurs with bold ideas to improve health equity in their communities. ThriveLink founder Kwamane Liddell’s lived experience as an ER nurse in underserved communities shapes his work with ThriveLink. As a nursing manager at Alameda Health System, he saw how many patients struggled because they lacked resources, faced housing issues, or couldn’t access healthy foods. He built ThriveLink to change that.
But we know that investing in companies doesn’t ensure adoption. Which is why we’re excited to connect Liddell and his team with leadership across the Medicaid ecosystem. Innovations like ThriveLink must interact with policy and purchasing, and we hope in the months and years to come that we can help plug ThriveLink into the influential decision makers in the sprawling United States healthcare system. There is an urgency to reimagine models in healthcare, and we feel ThriveLink—with an empathic leader like Kwamane Liddell—can play a part in that.
Veenu Aulakh is the Executive Director of the Medicaid Innovation Collaborative, a program of Acumen America.
